Not Quite What I Remember

So let me start with a confession.  

I am just a big kid.  

When I was a kid, my favorite cereal in the world was Franken Berry.  (For those unaware, it is a strawberry flavored cereal with marshmallows).  It was sad that it only came out during the Halloween season.  

For the past several years, I have seen it in stores during October, and often thought about buying some to revive old taste buds.  

This year, I finally broke.  I bought some to have for dessert at night.  And the other night, I excitedly got a bowl, and sat down to enjoy my special treat.  

It was not quite what I remember.  In fact, it was nothing like I remember.  Well, okay...it was still strawberry flavor.  

The marshmallows were okay.  But the cereal itself was something on the South end of disappointing.  I suppose it was better than dog food might be (although, when I was a kid, I kind of liked a product called "Doggy Donuts).  But I digress.  

I found myself just working to finish the bowl.  

How sad.  

Something I remember as being so wonderful just wasn't all that good.  Was it that I had lower standards back then?  Did they change the formula over the years?  Or have foods become so much sweeter through the years that what was sweet back then is like cardboard now?

I hear people talking about how awesome it was when they were in high school.  Bruce Springsteen sings about "Glory Days".  I think about what it would be like to go back, knowing what I know now. Yes, there are things I would change.  I'm over 50 now, but I wouldn't go back to my teenage years for anything.  

How much time is lost, longing for what was?  How can we enjoy life if we are too busy missing what we no longer have?  

When I was a kid, I didn't have a truck payment.  I lived at home, rent free.  I didn't have electric bills, or water bills.  I didn't have to go to work every single day.  I got to sleep in on the weekends until noon if I wanted to.  Friday and Saturday nights were spent at the arcade, and riding go karts, and whatever else we felt like doing.  

Now, I get up at 4 to 6 AM, and work ten to twelve hours a day.  Friday and Saturday nights are spent at home, looking through work for the next day.  Maybe taking the evening off, and watching TV.  I can't not work because I have a huge house payment, a truck payment, electric bills, water bills, insurance bills, cable bills, etc.  I have a wife, a mother-in-law, and three dogs living in the house.  There is seldom time to just sit and do nothing.

But in the last few years, God has shown me how to be thankful for things I always saw as negatives.

I'm thankful for a huge house payment because that means I have a nice home to come home to every evening.  Some people live in a cardboard box (or worse).

I'm thankful for a huge electric bill because it means I have heat and AC, and lights.  Some people freeze in winter, and swelter in summer because they don't have electricity.

I'm thankful to "have to" get up early every morning because it means I have a job to go to.  I have spent months looking through ads, trying to make ends meet on unemployment.  And I have the physical ability to go to work every day.  How many people are suffering from a disease, and would love nothing more than to be able to work?

I choose to be thankful for what I have now.  And I choose to not wish I could have what I thought was so good.

Wherever you are, and whatever is going on in your life now, choose to be thankful.  Thankful for what you have.  (If you are reading this, you have internet and access to a computer).  And you have eyes that can see, a brain that can comprehend, and the ability to read.  

It could be so much worse.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with an almost full box of Franken Berry.

48

So I turned 48 yesterday.

I guess it's normal to think about your life when you turn older.  SO many years to review.

On one hand, Facebook has made our world a lot smaller.  People I haven't seen in 40 years are suddenly part of life again.  Those who I was friends with in high school that I haven’t seen since then are friends again.  I may never see some of them again, but I can keep up with their lives, and they can keep up with mine.

On the other hand, life has, over the years, started to fly by with increasing dizziness.  

I remember being a kid, waiting on Christmas.  It took forever for it to get there.  In a matter of seconds it seemed it was over.  

Now, all of life seems that way.  Here I am in 2014.  How could this have happened?

I sent my wife an E-card on her anniversary of her job.  She started in 2001.  So, naturally, I congratulated her on her 12th year.  She corrected me.  And, as I started to correct her, I counted.  

Yep...12 years.  Oh wait....it's 2014....

How is it that a memory from something that seems like it was just a couple of years ago, is suddenly 20 or 30 years old?

Looking back over my life, I see times that were fun and gave me times of happiness.  Thank you to my brother, Stuart for so many of those.  Thank you to DeWayne (Bubba as he was known) for several others.  

There were many less than happy times as well.  

But through it all, I know I am who I am, and where I am because of all of the good (and bad) times.  So I have to be thankful, even for the bad times, for helping me get to where I am.

So many friends have come and gone.  So many others are currently sharing my life.  All of them have made this life what it is.

In spite of everything, it is a good life.  

There are times I get frustrated.  There are times I'm sad.  There are times I get irritated and angry.  So many times I wish people wouldn't act the way they do, or say the things they say.  But overall, I have a truly blessed life.  And I'm thankful for so many people that God has brought into my life to help me grow along the way.  It hasn't always been pleasant, but I have to be thankful for all of it.

So as I begin another year, thank you everyone.  For whatever it was you did with me, to me, or for me, throughout my life.  You have helped, willingly or not, to make life a wonderfully blessed experience.