Remember… Life is Short….

Wow, It sure has been a really really long time since I blogged last. Honestly I have really missed writing it's just that I have been so incredibly busy that I just haven't managed to make time to write. This morning I had an experience and some thoughts that made me stop and realize that I really wanted to share some of these thoughts with you…

Today was the official NASA Day of Remembrance to honor the crews of Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia. I could get into details about the space aspect of this… or the exploration aspect of this but that's not what I want to do right now…

Today while at Arlington Cemetery with many of the "extended NASA Family" and many friends, I couldn't help but reflect on some life thoughts in general….

Life is short people! Go live it! Enjoy it! Enjoy every moment of it! You never know what tomorrow may bring so why wait to enjoy life?!?! Get out there and live!!

Each day is a gift and not a guarantee. Don't assume that you can wait to take that big leap in your career, family, love or life in general next year - do it now! Don't say that you'll take that trip to wherever (name the place you want to go!) in a few years, if you can afford it now - spread your wings and fly! Go! If you can't afford it now, come up with a plan with a specific target date in mind. Don't just let it hang out there in the ether with no real plan because if you don't make a real plan you will just keep pushing it off.

Carpe Diem!

Life is just to short to not have fun. When opportunities present themselves, do your best to take advantage of the chance as opposed to saying "No I can't do it" because you have to work the next day or you have your house to clean. Embrace life! Embrace the joys that new experiences can bring.

Perhaps even more importantly… Tell the people who you care about how you feel. All too often we forget to let others know how much they mean to us and how important they are in our lives. In my opinion, life is all about the people who are in it. Today, while I was standing there at Arlington, taking in all of thoughts, feelings and emotions of the day, I turned to two of my friends and told them how happy I am to have them as my friends. I mentioned that we don't do things like that very often but at times where loss is so obvious you are aware that we need to do a better job of telling people how we feel. It seems like such a simple gesture yet it's something we all, in general, do so infrequently. The response I got was one of "Yes, we all do need to tell one another that we care about each other and not just at events like this."

Take the time today to reach out to one friend who is important to you and let them know. You might be surprised at the reaction you get.

I'm tired of us all saying wonderful things about people at Memorial services. Don't get me wrong, I want those things to be said there too, but I also want them to be said to the person while they are still here to hear it.

Some of you may find this next thing funny (Hodge, Erin and anyone else who was in HHS English Classes in the mid 90s….) you'll never guess what popped into my head when I was thinking about all of this….
                    "Tell Me Not in Mournful Numbers,
                       Life is but an empty dream!"
                                       -- Excerpt from The Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Yes, believe it or not there are portions of this that are still ingrained in my head (Thanks to Mrs. Sebby and Honors English) from when we had to memorize this poem. I have to admit I couldn't remember all of the poem but the stanzas I did remember spoke so eloquently of some of what I was thinking and feeling today and what I've tried to write about here. I am certainly no poet but I hope my thoughts gave you some pause and something to think about…

Since this poem is all about how important it is to live life to the fullest, I'll leave you with the whole poem in closing…

A Psalm of Life

BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

What The Heart Of The Young Man Said To The Psalmist.

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

   Life is but an empty dream!

For the soul is dead that slumbers,

   And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!

   And the grave is not its goal;

Dust thou art, to dust returnest,

   Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,

   Is our destined end or way;

But to act, that each to-morrow

   Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,

   And our hearts, though stout and brave,

Still, like muffled drums, are beating

   Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world’s broad field of battle,

   In the bivouac of Life,

Be not like dumb, driven cattle!

   Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!

   Let the dead Past bury its dead!

Act,— act in the living Present!

   Heart within, and God o’erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us

   We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us

   Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,

   Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

   Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,

   With a heart for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing,

   Learn to labor and to wait.

I love Facebook for the Actual Live and In-Person Connections!

I will admit it - at first I was not a fan of the idea of Facebook... then I got on it and realized that it's a pretty great way to share information and keep up with what is up in people's lives which is really helpful given how little time (sadly) we all have in life to make proper phone calls or visits to catch up. No Facebook will never replace real, live and in-person face to face time but it does help us stay connected... and sometimes it even leads to unexpected real, live and in-person face-to-face time. Let me explain...

Not once, not twice but 4 times now I have gotten to catch up with great friends in totally random places compliments of Facebook.

First instance we were in Scotland... had headed to the UK to do some space talks to schools with ISSET. At the beginning of it a few of us decided to make a stop in Scotland since we had never been. While we were there I noticed that our friends Vicki and Craig (who are from Australia and we had met in Fiji on our honeymoon) were posting about their travels and not only in the same country but were touring the same cities just 1 day ahead of us! Compliments of Facebook we were able to able to connect and meet up in person in London for dinner and a night out on the town. (Note that this picture is not from that meet-up but it is of us with Vicki & Craig!)

Next instance was probably the most bizarre of all. Last fall we were headed to Dublin to see the Navy vs. Notre Dame football game. Even though it was a heck of a trip for a weekend we were no kidding doing it in a weekend. I won't go into the gory details of how much United messed up on this one but since we had to connect in Frankfort we got stuck there for about 16 hours due to a strike by Lufthansa.  Needless to say I was a rather unhappy camper about that so I ranted about it a bit on Facebook. Boy am I glad I did... got a message back from some of our best buds Tonto & Swani that they were in Frankfort for their connection home from Russia. We did a little sweet-talking to get ourselves into the area that they were in and sat around the United Club (whatever the equivalent there was called) and caught up for a little over an hour until they had to fly to Houston.

The third instance happened in New York City. I was in NYC with my mom - Mom had never been there so I thought I would take her there for a new adventure. We had bought tickets to see "Kinky Boots" (which I still need to get off my butt and write a blog about too!) and as we were prepping to head there I saw my dear friend Gary post on Facebook a picture he'd taken and tagged as in New York City currently. I immediately shot off a text to ask if he really was in NYC to which he replied Yep! Knowing that time was of the essence I called to see what he was up to... unfortunately he was extremely busy with some Social Media Conference he was going to and was only in town for about 24 hours so sadly he wasn't going to be able to get together with us to hang out at all. It was further crazy that he was staying at the hotel that is my "usual" Times Square Hotel but we weren't staying there because by the time I had gotten around to deciding that we were going the hotel had gotten way too expensive. We ended the call both lamenting that it was too bad we were both in the same city but that our schedules just wouldn't cross. Not to be deterred I decided that I could manage to hoof it over to the bar Gary was sitting in and would have just about 5 minutes to do a Hug and run in order to get to the show on time. Gary was quite surprised when I showed up and it was great to be able to say Hi "live and in person" even if it was just a quick visit.

The latest instance just happened and it's funny because I was going to "publish" this blog before leaving for London but just never got around to writing the last of it. One of our favorite Ensigns (recent Naval Academy Graduate) was on leave and flying Space Available around Europe. Upon my arrival in London I had a Facebook message waiting for me that he too was going to be here! We had no idea!  So we managed to meet up with him at a London pub for a beer or 2! (Actually we were sad we were too busy to get to do more with him but C'est la vie!)

So while Facebook has helped me to keep up with so many people virtually perhaps what I love the most is that it's helped me connect in person with these dear friends who I might have missed seeing otherwise! Even Ken (who is seriously anti-Facebook) has to admit that it's pretty dang cool for that purpose!