I’ve been reading a book for my journey group (part of Oak Leaf) by John Ortberg called, The Life You’ve Always Wanted. I’ve already found several quotes that I’ve put down in my journal, but thought I’d start posting some of them here. The chapter for this week is basically about living in the “now”, enjoying life while you have it.
Carpe diem has always been a philosophy of mine, I chose to avoid saying “no” as much as possible when I was in college. I may have been studying or writing a paper, but if someone from the hall came in my room and asked me to go to grab a bite to eat or run to Walmart with them, I would stop what I was doing and go. This probably wasn’t the smartest thing as far as my grades were concerned, but I loved every minute of my experience. I still to this day will generally stop what I’m doing if someone calls and wants to go grab some food or catch a movie or a game. I love experiencing life. Anyway, here is the quote; I thought it was a good example of grass-is-always-greener syndrome–someday you’ll miss the opportunities you chose not to take advantage of:
We all live with the illusion that joy will come someday when conditions change. We go to school and think we will be happy when we graduate. We are single and are convinced we will be happy when we get married. We get married and decide we will be happy someday when we have children. We have children and decide we will be happy when they grow up and leave the nest–then they do, and we think we were happier when they were still at home (68).