There is so much that I want to do, and I have so many ideas but they'll never get done however much I want them to.
I 'm not talking about laundry and ironing or making the beds. I'm not talking about getting the boys to school and meeting my own deadlines nor am I talking about chickens, dogs or any other four legged or bewinged creature. I am talking of the things I really want to do, the ideas for businesses and products and travel and writing and dreams and projects and well just about anything that you or even I can think of to do.
Those eureka moments in the car or while I bathe when my mind is free of the cares and travails of my workaday existence.
And the worst thing is I tell people and I talk to them about my plans and my hopes and then, well they never come to fruition. Why? Well life sort of gets in the way doesn't it? For all I don't want to talk of laundry and shopping and cooking and bills and sorting out the cars and MOTs, for all that, well someone has to do it and the job lot falls to me.
So I am amazed and stunned when I hear of people who actually do do something and do you know what I wonder whether they worry about the laundry and the ironing and I think to myself do you have any unpaid parking tickets and do you and your family get a balanced diet or do you cheat and go for ready meals or else eat the same thing day in day out?
And I realise I am middle aged.
Are middle aged people allowed to dream anymore? Can they put their dreams into action? Can you have a 45 year old young novelist? Can you have a 45 year old new artist? Or have I just missed the boat?
The older I get the more I realise the truth in the saying that youth is wasted on the young.
But you see the truth is I am young, despite the grey hair and the saggy skin I don't feel any older than I was yesterday, I don't feel any older than all my yesterdays.
How the Gods must laugh!
You know I will come up with the most seminal and most brilliant thought on the day I die - what a blooming waste!
10 comments:
Course you will Tattie, dying is the biggest thing we learn to do.i our house we have a saying "you learn something new every day, if you're not careful."
Plans, dreams, goals never end or need to if you have a lively mind.It doesn't matter if all of them don't come to fruition, some will and it's amazing how many more do once we get through the child raising, laundry, cooking years.So easy to get bogged down and not insist on time for ourselves, when we get to write that first para of our book!
We all have to believe it's not too late. AAAnd you are younger than me - so you have even more time! I think the fact we even have original sparky ideas is a good sign, but yes I know what you mean, the exhaustion of bed bath and beyond for the kids and endless meals can mean that great new idea gets buried in the washing. From what I have seen of people who embark of their ideas they just set off without thinking it through, because if they did think it through they would have never have done it. Anyway you are blogging so doing something and putting it out there!Wow this is so rambling ...sorry, its nearly bed, bath and beyond here, so ideas-free zone
Can you have a 45 year old young novelist? Can you have a 45 year old new artist? Or have I just missed the boat?
Interesting questions. The answers: yes, you can; yes, you can; no, you haven't.
I have a fortysomething blog friend, bit older than you, who is thinking of going to university next year. And why not? She still has kids at home, but needs to stretch her mind and gain new experiences.
I went back to school in my mid-30s, and again in my mid-50s. New careers, new experiences. Both moves were good ones. If an old Bear can do it, a younger Weasle can do it, too.
Tattie...follow those dreams and plans. I think most people find their dreams and see their talents come to fruition in their 40s and 50s...you go girl. If you read about novelists at the back of the book, or read a blurb about a fantastic trendy artist you often find they only started in their 40s!! I agree it is really difficult fitting it all in, and I don't think the perfect day when it all comes together actually happens I think everyone stumbles along. I read a great quote recently which said 'success comes from a whole series of mistakes and failures'.
I know exactly how you feel. Just living and surviving takes up all your time - especially when there's a family involved. It's so frustrating and life is just too short. I get inspired by the stories you read of novelists who didn't start to write until their 50's or later, or the artist I read about recently who though she had been painting all her life, was only 'discovered' in her 90's - so there's hope yet!' It's easy to feel that you're 'past it' in your forties (and I'm older than you too), but when you consider how much of your life you potentially have left there's no real reason why that should be so. Success isn't only the perogative of the young after all.
Oh god, did I write this post? NO?? You did?? My thoughts exactly. Was having them this am as I had a cup of tea and stared out of the window and WISHED that just for one day I could follow what I wanted to do and not what I HAVE to do... washing and ironing and feeding people who need feeding AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN.
But we DO have time. We are sort of the same age with the same sort of aspirations and hopes. I think we just have to get on with it. And time WILL be more abundant once the cafeteria of childhood is finally closed. We shall weep then, for what we dont have!! Oh dear, so important to enjoy all the stages, but easier said than done when one is right in the thick of the busiest. Fab post, Tattie. xxx
What a timely post. I had to take a course on setting goals as part of my work recently and I found it to be very interesting. I am now using some of the techniques to make my dream of creating my own CD a reality. Send me your e-mail and I'll send you the details. wbell@rei.com
That was a great post Tattie. I still want to write this book and I'm old enough to be your mother. Never let go of your dreams!
Having just had a birthday, I can vouch for the mid to plus 40's Not being old. We are only half way through our lives.
OMG, I think that might be a bit depressing as I too have yet to write the great YA novel. though have finished one and don't own my own business and soon one of my babies will go off to university.
You are not alone.
What a great post Tattie - and it echoes so many of my own thoughts...
PMX
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