Last week, we talked about how it’s time to love some enemies. Or in the words of the song,
“It’s time to love some enemies
Start livin’ and make some memories
It’s time to dream again
And show the world what they’ve been missin’
It’s time – this time –
To risk it all, to leave it all behind.”*
Loving enemies is just the first part of love. I’m also realizing the value of living in such a way that it makes memories. There’s still the mundane (when doesn’t it exist?) Each of us still have choices of how we live, what we do with free time, how we interact with others, whether we live life as adventure or mundane. It all leads to memories or non-memories.
How many people have we heard of or know who seem to be workaholics, never anywhere but work? How many people simply race from one appointment to the next, spending their lives stressed out as to how they’re going to make the schedule work this time? How many people do you know who seem to do nothing in their spare time except sit in front of the TV? (Of course, none of you do that – you all use your free time to go hiking, lol.)
But there are other people who somehow have a knack for doing memorable stuff. It’s not that they don’t work or watch TV; many of them do. Somehow, in the midst of the appointments and need-to-dos, they find ways of doing memorable things. Or maybe the things they do just turn out to be memorable.
The funny thing about these people is that they’re typically the ones who take risks. So they lose their way trying to get around a traffic jam, drive dirt roads through the backwoods of Colorado through towns of mining shacks only to find themselves in a glitzy casino town. Or they walk half-overgrown railroad beds at midnight, lose their way, and almost have to wait until dawn to figure out where they are. Or they decide to take their van on a “shortcut”… through who-knowns-where and down crazy dirt roads that end them up at international border crossings where the guards tell them the road they took doesn’t exist. Ditto to find themselves in the middle of cattle drives, rebuilding the road (that saves hours of driving), on the last ferry of the day with 5 minutes to spare, or on the other side of a wildfire. It’s all the stuff that makes memories.
And yes, all this literally happened to one person I know. The crazier end of the spectrum apparently have a good dose of common sense for getting out of scrapes and crew of guardian angels keeping them safe. At the time, their adventures may seem like moment to moment logic, but in hindsight, they realize the craziness of their situation.
Memories don’t have to be so dangerous or risky. They just need to be adventurous enough to be memorable. A peaceful day at the beach is memorable if the day is just perfect and you’re enjoying yourself (no need for a shark attack to make it exciting!)
Intentional, positive memories are the antithesis of regret. It’s hard to be regretful when you remember the fun you had or the crazy way things worked out. Not all memories are pleasant, but we can make some of the choices we won’t regret: 10 years from now, would I rather remember the afternoon spent with family laughing together or the afternoon where I worked hard on some project I can’t even remember what was?
And so I’m taking the time to slow down and be intentional about memories. Work has to happen, but it doesn’t have to rule my life. I still have to be at appointments, but I can work my life to make time for memory-making. I can allow the adventurous side of me to grow and mature – not to do crazy things, but just to take life as a memory-making adventure that might end me up in some rather interesting places.
