Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Regrets, I've Had A Few

There are some things I've discovered over the course of my life.  Some, I've known for a while.  Other are just becoming  apparent to me.  Maybe life has to slap you around a little before you discover the truth about yourself.  Like the fact that I'm a slow learner.  And that I'll never skate in the Olympics.

I will never fold laundry like my mother in law.  I don't know if its an eye-hand coordination  thing, or if it involves math.  What I do know is that I suck at folding sheets.  I've tried using a table, the sofa, the bed and the floor but nothing seems to help.  I end up with a sad little pile of wrinkled bedding that makes me feel like taking up antiquing.  I shove them into the linen closet where they sit beside the wrinkled napkins and badly ironed table cloths.  The door stays firmly closed.

My mother in law made Martha Stewart look like an Appalachian hillbilly.  No matter what was happening in her life, her house always looked its best.  She could whip up food for forty people in under an hour and keep her cool when visitors turned up out of the blue, expecting to stay for two weeks.  I learned a lot from her over the years, but that kind of graciousness is not in my DNA.

I'm never going to be good at yoga.  It would probably help if I took some classes, but still.  I'm just not that bendy. Ten years of ballet and I never mastered the splits.  I will never dance with the Stars, or be one.  No one will ever think that I can dance.  Especially me.  But still.

Somehow I've managed to end up with people who love me.  I have children that I respect and adore, a mother I cherish and a husband who still makes me laugh after thirty-six years.  My sisters and brother will always have my back, even when I drive them crazy.  And what I've realized is, its never too late to learn something new.  Okay, too late for skating, but Yoga is a strong maybe.

Like Frank Sinatra, I've had some regrets.    Unlike him, I'm completely comfortable mentioning them.  Now I'm going to follow the rest of his well sung advice.  I'll continue to fold sheets, take classes and move my life forward.  I'll just do it my way.   


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