We are lucky. We have lived long enough to start a new decade. I don’t know about you, but if I count the decade I was born, 2020 is the beginning of my ninth decade? What? I better start living faster. According to Professor Google, these next ten years will be a time of freedom and technological advancement. It will also gift us 5,256,000 minutes to maximize or waste. If you are reading this on publication day, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020, you have already lost 10,080 minutes. Eek. Oh, the pressure.

Imagine each past decade as a chapter in your memoir or life story. My imagination is creating a new book called Sitting Places, and each of my completed eight decades provides content for where I found chairs, benches, swings, etc., to rest, reflect, and refresh. For example, as a baby, my sitting places included mother’s arms and the safety of my crib, where three older sisters couldn’t pass me around. In early childhood, a rocking horse my dad built and a turquoise chair for mothering my baby-dolls were sitting places where I could remember, pretend, and dream.

Sitting places throughout my life were warm and fuzzy, but there were also times in each decade that held sad and hard-learned lessons. The two decades of raising three kids on a farm include broken bones, accidents on three-wheelers, and rattlesnakes. In those years, an orange rocker-recliner and lying on a trampoline (away from snakes) fed my soul with peace, hope, and solutions.

Currently, and during the last decade, one of my treasured sitting places is my computer chair. Working through confusing and conflicting emotions while tapping away at a computer keyboard has saved me from meltdowns, and provided answers I wouldn’t otherwise find.

Pleasant memories plus wisdom gained by heartache need to travel with us into this new decade. Pack the dark memories into boxes and leave them on a shelf for history. Bring along the good and leave the undesirables behind. Everyone has private or public humiliation, guilt, or shame. Leave them where they originated—in past decades. Don’t allow your future to be a time-capsule for accumulated pain. You have already learned from your misguided choices, and you will live happier if you leave them behind. Once you clear your mind of self-abuse, create new sitting places, and design this third decade of the 21st Century for dreams to become a reality.

Until the next time: Live while you live.

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