On a Light Note

What I do today is important because I am exchanging a day of my life for it. Hugh Mulligan

I went into the garage last night before retiring for the evening to confirm the garage doors were closed and locked. In the darkness I saw the car’s interior lights were on, so I went and turned them off. I had had the car in for some repair work and the manager told me the battery wouldn’t hold a charge (they had had the car for a number of days waiting for parts), so I asked them to just put in a new one. 

I had noticed that before I took the car in for some electrical work because I’d had to charge the battery whenever the car had been sitting for a week or more. Now I am wondering if the problem was a bad battery or having interior lights switched on 24/7 – lights I (and the service folks) would not have noticed during the long daylight hours of summer. Good grief!

The car has a new battery now, so I’ll never know. I could gnash my teeth over the possibility that I’d spent money I didn’t need to (and I do need to be more frugal in retirement), but I also know they installed a top-notch battery that should last 75 months according to the paperwork I received, so I see it more as an investment in a trouble-free power source rather than a wasted expense. It won’t be the first time I’ve done something silly, and it certainly won’t be the last time.

I try not to waste time in the world of “woulda, coulda, shoulda.” I may not be the sharpest financial genius with a piggy bank, but I know better than to invest time and energy in regrets. We all have regrets, of course, but we don’t need to wallow in them. I find spending too much time regretting keeps me from investing my time and energies more productively. As a friend once said, “You can’t live in two places at once; if you live in regret, you can’t live in the present.”

The point is, there is no time to waste. Assuming a human lifespan is 142 years, I’ve finally reached middle age, so it’s time to get going and make something of myself. As Mulligan (above) says, “What I do today is important …”

When I was working, I was a list-generator. I would make a list for two reasons. First, I needed to keep track of what I was supposed to be doing, who I needed to be visiting or calling, and so on. Secondly, I gained a lot of satisfaction seeing things get checked off my daily lists. It gave me a sense of accomplishment. 

Nowadays, the only lists I make are grocery lists; they’re always on the refrigerator door where I find (when I get to the store) that I’ve usually left them. Still, there is a certain amount of satisfaction of getting home and seeing how many things I remembered to get! Every victory, no matter how small or insignificant, is STILL a victory.

There’s a lot more flexibility with my calendar in retirement, of course (and a certain amount of irony to be found in getting older: my calendar is now more flexible while I’m not).

Be that as it may, I do manage to find things to keep me busy. I enjoy pulling weeds – something I never liked doing before. Of course, I wait until they grow knee high so I don’t have to bend so far, but the daily trip around the garden to find unwanted vegetation is productive. I continue to add water to the front and back bird-baths, although my avian friends haven’t been visiting as regularly as in the past. Most likely that is due to some new cats having moved into and prowling about the neighborhood.

I don’t mind. Cats have to do what cats have to do. This is their world, too, and that’s important. The planet isn’t a sandbox humans can explore and exploit. It is a home for all of creation. Perhaps that’s why the car lamps were lit. Home is where we leave a light on for those we love.

Apparently that’s what I’ve done here in this, our valley.

Keith Axberg writes on matters concerning life and faith. Author of: Who the Blazes is Jesus? Good News for a Vulgar World (available through Amazon in Print and e-book)