10 Best Days

I read a book last night and the main characters were discussing what the 10 best days of their lives were. Sounds easy, but try and pick 10...just 10 and the choices get hard. Or at least I am very blessed than picking just 10 seems extremely hard indeed.

The first few are easy:
1. The day I got married.
2. The day our daughter was born healthy in spite of the crazy AF doctors
3. The day our second daughter was born
4. The most perfect summer day at the cabin
5. Swimming, fishing, laughing and then watching the stars and listening to the wolves howl in the BWCA
6. Being surprised with a white fur coat (it wasn't the coat as much as knowing that he knew me that well and loved me that much)
7. The day I passed my nursing boards
8. The day I fell in love with the one and knew he who loved me back
9. Wearing a gorgeous dress, dancing with my true love, looking up into his eyes and seeing a look that literally left me breathless
10. the day mom and I snuck off and went for coffee...and stayed 4 hours talking

There are so many days made up of special golden moments that become priceless treasured memories. It breaks my heart to think of people who suffer from dementia and Alzheimer's disease. I don't know that there could be much worse than slowly loosing the ones you love. It isn't the memories as much as the connections with other people that matter most. How awful it must be to look around and not recognize anything or anyone? How terrifying and lonely! To know that you are missing that thing that makes us human, that connection, those priceless memories, I don't think there can be a more cruel process on this Earth. It really makes you stop and think what matters most and to cherish each precious moment as it flies by.

It also makes you appreciate the tight rope walk that separates a perfect day from a disaster. What if I had been the only person in my nursing class to fail the exam? What if it had rained in the BWCA? What if the coffee shop was closed? What if I cut myself shaving, was crabby or the babysitter got sick and we hadn't gone dancing that night? So many things big and small can wreck a day in a heart beat. Or maybe we choose to let things bother us when they shouldn't. Maybe we need to relax, enjoy, be open to happiness and not chase it away. Maybe we also need to give up trying to control life to attain perfection and instead let life show us instead. Or maybe we just need to eat more chocolate.