Missed!

I missed the month of October.  Not really, of course, in that I was here in the Land of The Living. Just not in Blogland. The first time, I think, I've miossed a whole month since June 2007.  When I woke this morning and realised that that it was suddenly November I also realised just how fast my life is flying by now I'm in my eighties.  

 

I'm no longer making promises to myself because I'm realising that I'm not keeping them and I always  used to pride myself that if I made a promise then I kept it, come Hell or high water.

 

What made me realise how out of touch I was getting was an email conversation with a Blogland pal from the early blogging days. It made me realise, too, just how many of my Blogland pals are no more. 

 

The irony is that in my 80s I am now fortunate enough to be busier than ever. Or am I? Perhaps the reality is that I am no busier than I ever was but  everything takes so much longer and much more effort. 

 

A friend has just bought a house in Sicily and is moving there. She offered me a ride there. Given that she owns a Bently that was very tempting. The reality is that I will never travel abroad again because, after my history of bouts of sepsis which have appeared so often and suddenly in the middle of the night, I have lost my confidence. 

 

I am fortunate to have lived what, in my terms, has been a very interesting life here and in New Zealand. So despite what would be an absolutely wonderful opportunity to re-visit Italy, a country I love so much, I am staying put in my Island home. I might, of course, pop down to Glasgow occasionally! Fortunately I am reasonably fluent in Weegie. Probably because of my knowledge of Scouse. 

 

 

Keeping Promises

Many of us have made promises that we have, at some time and for some reason, broken.  I promised ''...'till death us do part."  But I am divorced.  I'm sure there are many others but that's the one that still haunts me.  So now I try never to make a promise that I can't keep.  I never make a promise I don't intend to keep.  So yesterday when I received an email from a beloved God-daughter asking if all was OK because I hadn't emailed for well over a week when I was down in England and stayed with her, I was mortified.  Had it really been that long since I'd emailed?  And why did it matter so much?  Well it did because I'd made a promise once upon a time that I would email her every week.  I'm pretty sure that give or take a lost day here and there when I've lost track of where I was never mind what day it was, I've kept that promise.  This last fortnight when I've been away as well as here, every time I thought about it I thought "That's ok there's no news I've just seen her.".  And so the time passed. 

Last night I made a list of emails and phone calls and letters to be written today and her name was at the top of the list.  I still had to tell her my Good News 'cos I hadn't texted.  I make lists in order of who's up in the morning (Europe) who's next (Canada/USA) and who'll be picking them up latest (New Zealand when my this evening is their tomorrow morning).  And vice versa when I'm in New Zealand.  Life's complicated in my world.  Or perhaps I just make it that way.

So first thing this morning I wrote my weekly message.

Then I got to thinking about promises in general and other promises I've made and can remember.   I think I've only made one recently.  It's to someone amongst whose friends I am privileged to be counted.  It made me realise just how few promises I do make and just how very seriously I take promises: whether they are made by me or to me.