Life can get pretty complicated. What with mortgage payments, work politics, and personal finances, life can sometimes just spin out of control. It’s not easy to take care of all the day-to-day obligations and activities of a busy schedule without losing focus or feeling overwhelmed. Which is why I sometimes wish that things slowed down, life simplified, and all I had to worry about was feeding my family.
Kind of a nice thought isn’t it? Instead of waking up every morning and worrying about my 9:00AM conference call with my regional manager or how my IRA account is performing in the markets that day, it would be quite the relief if I woke up with the singular goal of somehow getting enough food so my wife and children can eat. There’s something very attractive about knowing that I would only have one responsibility each and every day: finding nourishment for my loved ones.
I have to believe that nothing could be more motivating than knowing that if I don’t do my job, I could lose my family.
Take my kids, for example. My eldest son plays indoor and outdoor soccer all year and is highly involved in theater at school, and my youngest son needs to get driven to swim practice in the morning and at night. Additionally, my daughter has become quite the piano player, which requires lessons three times a week from Mrs. Wellington who is about 45 minutes away. Not to mention all the private school tuition! I can’t help but feel that life would just be a lot easier if I didn’t have to manage all their extracurricular activities and just worry about keeping them fed and alive.
Just this past weekend, we went up to the lake house for a quick family getaway. As if making sure my office schedule was cleared and the kids were successfully waived from school for a couple days wasn’t enough, we also had to buy enough supplies for the weekend and get it all packed in the SUV. What a headache! Just as we were pulling out of the driveway with my wife upset about us being two hours late, I just thought myself, “Gosh how much nicer it would be if having a warm meal was special enough to make them all happy.”
I can’t be the only one who day dreams about that kind of centered life, right?
If you don’t agree, just picture this. Get rid of all the dinner parties with neighbors, the endless e-mails from co-workers, the never ending charity events, the constant calls from clients and headhunters, and the incessant worry about your 401(k) and retirement savings. Get rid of all of it. And then picture just the singular, daily need to somehow scrounge up enough money to put food on the table for just one more day at the risk of losing your family to social services or watching them die. If that doesn’t peak your interest, then you really need to get your priorities straight.
Unfortunately, I know that I’ll probably never find such a concentrated purpose in my life. Not everyone can be so lucky. But it sure is nice to have something to shoot for.
The Lonely Petunia
Sometimes I Wish Life Was Simpler And All I Had To Worry About Was Feeding My Family
By: Fred Williamson
Life can get pretty complicated. What with mortgage payments, work politics, and personal finances, life can sometimes just spin out of control. It’s not easy to take care of all the day-to-day obligations and activities of a busy schedule without losing focus or feeling overwhelmed. Which is why I sometimes wish that things slowed down, life simplified, and all I had to worry about was feeding my family.
Kind of a nice thought isn’t it? Instead of waking up every morning and worrying about my 9:00AM conference call with my regional manager or how my IRA account is performing in the markets that day, it would be quite the relief if I woke up with the singular goal of somehow getting enough food so my wife and children can eat. There’s something very attractive about knowing that I would only have one responsibility each and every day: finding nourishment for my loved ones.
I have to believe that nothing could be more motivating than knowing that if I don’t do my job, I could lose my family.
Take my kids, for example. My eldest son plays indoor and outdoor soccer all year and is highly involved in theater at school, and my youngest son needs to get driven to swim practice in the morning and at night. Additionally, my daughter has become quite the piano player, which requires lessons three times a week from Mrs. Wellington who is about 45 minutes away. Not to mention all the private school tuition! I can’t help but feel that life would just be a lot easier if I didn’t have to manage all their extracurricular activities and just worry about keeping them fed and alive.
Just this past weekend, we went up to the lake house for a quick family getaway. As if making sure my office schedule was cleared and the kids were successfully waived from school for a couple days wasn’t enough, we also had to buy enough supplies for the weekend and get it all packed in the SUV. What a headache! Just as we were pulling out of the driveway with my wife upset about us being two hours late, I just thought myself, “Gosh how much nicer it would be if having a warm meal was special enough to make them all happy.”
I can’t be the only one who day dreams about that kind of centered life, right?
If you don’t agree, just picture this. Get rid of all the dinner parties with neighbors, the endless e-mails from co-workers, the never ending charity events, the constant calls from clients and headhunters, and the incessant worry about your 401(k) and retirement savings. Get rid of all of it. And then picture just the singular, daily need to somehow scrounge up enough money to put food on the table for just one more day at the risk of losing your family to social services or watching them die. If that doesn’t peak your interest, then you really need to get your priorities straight.
Unfortunately, I know that I’ll probably never find such a concentrated purpose in my life. Not everyone can be so lucky. But it sure is nice to have something to shoot for.
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