A Little Bit More

   

Christmas 1956 with grandparents and baby brother Clark

    Today is day 345 for my memory-a-day-for-a-whole-year blog! As I’m winding down through this month of December, the challenge for completing this blog has been one of wondering which memories have I not touched upon yet that I should? I have, by no means, run out of memories, yet I am not at all tempted to continue into next year. Three hundred sixty-five are enough for the point I was attempting to make.

 I know I could have said much more about my daughters and the memories we made together – I decided to save most of those joyous tales for when their journals are transcribed for my grandchildren and our oral storytelling.

I thought I would have a whole month’s worth of Christmas stories to post in December, but still other thoughts come to mind, and many of the holiday tales have been pushed aside.

Yesterday as I was bustling about the house, I was suddenly reminded of an old family saying, and I realized the quote had not been mentioned as yet in Sharp Stick in the Eye. So that has to be today’s entry!

        Having retired from the lab in August, and thus allegedly having lots of time for everything else, it has been surprising to me how quickly the days swoosh by, and I still feel like not enough is getting done! Yesterday morning I did a bit of writing and then sealed up some Christmas packages to take to the post office. While I printed address labels and taped boxes, I thought about what else needed doing – the rest of the Christmas wrapping, laundry, a shopping list for dinner fixins and for company that is coming this weekend, getting groceries after the post office, ironing, Christmas decorations on the front porch and down the front steps, vacuuming the pine needles up that have fallen from the Christmas tree, and might as well keep vacuuming through the whole house and the stairs, cleaning the master bath, yikes! I knew all of those things would not get done yesterday and I was a tad exasperated with myself. How to push my body and soul harder?

        That’s when the quote came to mind. I heard it over the years from my mother. She told the story about it to me a few times in her life when she did not know she already had. It was a quote from her father. I used to think it was a philosophy for the workplace, but now I realize it is something good for me to strive for at home, “Every day, do what is expected of you. And then do more.” It could be a little more, or a lot more, – everyone should be fine with you doing what is expected – you will only shine, and maybe only shine on the inside, but you will only shine, when you are consistently doing a little more.

        A tad less exasperated, a bit more productive. A little bit more. Hey! That could be a new daily blog post for 2016!

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