Blog Post Five
Sitting on the Beach Alone
Just recently I thought of a conversation I had with a mentor of mine, just a random thought really, that lead me to share this story with you. A few years ago, a mentor of mine and I were having a conversation about what we wanted our lives to look like in the future. She would often say to me that it's no fun sitting on the beach alone, she was implying that wealth is great to have, not great to have alone. I agree with that sentiment, what's the point of working really hard if you have no one to share it with. Oftentimes we are so consumed with where we want to go, all the goals we need to achieve, the glass ceilings we need to break. We keep our heads down and grind grind grind so that we win win win and reap the rewards of our grind. However, in doing so we tend to miss so much of what is going on around us, we look up and there’s no one around to share it with. Even if that’s not the case you do have friends and a family, I’m sure there were events and ceremonies, dance recitals that you missed out on, moments you won’t be able to get back.
When my kids were little, I'm talking about 3 and 4 years old. I was a workaholic, as my mother would describe me. I really didn't have a choice as a single mother who had to do overtime in order to get by; I was constantly coming and going. At some point I realized that I was coming home to sleep, and then right back out in the morning I was getting home at 11 p.m. and turning around and going right back out at 5 a.m. I felt like I was missing out on their childhood. I spent so much time working that I literally wouldn't see my babies for days.
That’s when I started prayed for God to release me from my job, I was burning the candles at both ends and barely got to see my kids. Well don’t you know, ask and ye shall receive, I wish payment came with a warning label because sure enough about a few weeks later I got fired from that job. I was devastated and panicked striken but found another job a week later. It was then that I started finding jobs to fit around my kids and their lives, their schedules and not the other way around. Still to this day my work life revolves around me being available to my kids, during school and after school.
Don't wait until so much time has passed that it feels like holding sand. Time is the commodity that we don't get back. It is important to have purpose, as it drives us to show up in the world in the most important ways, for ourselves and others. Whatever is your purpose, whatever is driving you, make sure you slow down a bit to enjoy spending time with those riding along with you.