Tuesday, September 10, 2019

Change of Plans

Yesterday in my post titled Balance, I wrote "And when prioritized correctly, plans do come together, even if the coming together is not the way I visualized or wanted it.'

Yesterday, I also had the opportunity to practice those words.

A couple weeks ago, my Uncle Carl, whom I've not seen in nearly a decade (although we talk on the phone a couple times a month), said he was driving through Illinois the week after Labor Day; would I like to have lunch or dinner?

Of course, I agreed. But I did ask for a day's heads-up (if possible) so I could rearrange my schedule and meet deadlines.

He never called.

So I had him on my "morning phone call list" for yesterday to find out what happened. And when the early morning because late mid-morning, and I had run out of time, I moved my uncle to my Tuesday call list.

I had no sooner done this when my uncle called: Would I like to have lunch at 1:30?

Of course, I agreed. What day?

Well, in three hours.

That was a game-changer of a Monday.

Somehow, I meet the most immediate of deadlines and was ready to leave when he arrived at the office. He was able to meet our managing editor, and I silently reminded myself to ask the waitress to take a photo of my uncle and me before we left (I take terrible selfies, all five I've probably snapped in my life).

Well, the time was so engaging, ninety minutes sped away. I enjoyed myself so much, it never occurred to me to chronicle the time. I simply lived it.

Not until after I was back in the office working on round two of deadlines, and my uncle was well on his way west, did I remember the photo.

He's supposed to drive back through Illinois, on his way east, in mid-October. Plenty of time to get the photo, then.

So I'll just have to share this one of Uncle Carl and my three oldest children: Christopher, Sarah, and Joshua. My uncle, who worked for ATandT at the time (the blog will mess up the ampersand) stopped by one evening for a lovely two hours of conversation.

It was shortly before Christmas 1985, and my husband was in the hospital (a ten-day stay) for double pneumonia. The kids were 3, 18 months, and almost 4 months.

So I didn't everything done on my life yesterday. And I probably won't today either.

But guess what?

It will all get done.

Most likely.


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