9

I have used up more than
20,000 days waiting to see
what the next would bring.

Last year, I bought a book of poetry, a conversation between Ted Kooser and his friend Jim Harrison. The book is a correspondence in poetry between the two authors. I started talking about Kooser and then I got all sentimental and pulled a book down. It is full of vignettes of wisdom, sparks of thought. The quote above is one.

I wonder how many days I have wasted waiting for tomorrow. I remember spending hours in my room staring out the window, listening to music in my youth, imagining a life that was different. These days, especially when it snows, I can't wait to leave work because somehow I feel that that is when life begins. I need to be reminded that sometimes when I am waiting for later or the next day, I miss what is happening around me. I don't see what I should see.