What sacrifices have I made in life?
The real answer is none. I don’t think of anything I’ve done or had to do as a “sacrifice,” truly. I don’t like the connotation of that word. It just doesn’t feel right.
But…have I decided I couldn’t do certain things in order to achieve something else? Every day. And that includes taking care of the people around me. Like, today: I could have slept in or watched sports on my iPad or whatever rather than going to help my mom pick up trash on the side of the highway for her charity group…but I didn’t. I didn’t even WANT to, despite the fact that sleeping in or watching sports are both very highly prized activities in my life…but so was spending time with my mom, the entire reason I’m up here on this trip, you know? So is that a sacrifice??? I don’t think so.
Getting up super early to write is maybe a better example because it’s objectively hard and unpleasant. But it means I get to write my books, so in that way, it’s a no-brainer, you know? So is it a sacrifice? I don’t think so. Or doing something Liz wants to do, or maybe something is more inconvenient for me but it’s convenient for her…I love my wife and making her happy makes me happy, so is that a sacrifice?
I do things all the time that are not the easiest or most pleasant or whatever in the moment…but pay off down the line or for someone else. I think that’s grit, in a certain way, it’s fortitude and foresight and the ability to get out of my own in the moment closed mindedness. I guess I think the word “sacrifice” connotes something far more…tragic than that, something far more out of my hands. Every time do something like that, for some greater good, it’s a choice I make. It’s not an act of god.
But yeah, I make sacrifices all the time, I guess.
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We did mom’s birthday today! It was great. Started with picking up trash along her volunteer group’s stretch of the highway, and then breakfast with her friend. Then home for a bit, took a very brief nap there, helped my dad a little, and then we went and walked at the beach, which was lovely. Drove all the way out on the road there, all the way until it dead-ends at a farm, and then came home and waited for the gang to show up. Robbie, Jerry, and Jan. They came, we chatted, we ate great food, and now…
Sleep.
I am WIPED. Great day. Night night.