Aaah, No that's Julie Andrews' list mine is much more contemporary.
Ten years ago my son had us answer a questionnaire about our favourite things. He, like me at this time, is cleaning out his living quarters; AKA downstairs! While he was going through some old files, he found the lists from ten years ago and they made very interesting reading.
His list comprised of such things as favourite drink, food, music, films, actors, past times, people and thinkers plus many more. As I reviewed my answers, I realised that not a hell of a lot has changed.
Colin Firth, Bruce Willis, Garth Brooks, Jimmy Barnes. Monet, Brett Whiteley (not the politician), fried rice and Western Australia all continue to feature heavily in my list today as they did then.
A few dismissals: Andre Agassi, Colin Friels, Minette Walters, Sambucca and vanilla coke. Somethings do not get better with age.
My five favourite people are still my husband, children and father, closely followed by the rest of our lovely big family and dear friends.
My favourite past times are still patchwork, reading, visiting friends and sewing. I can now add to that list knitting (*again), Facebooking and getting messages from the kids via Viber. Deleted from that list are shopping, I mean really, what is the point, I would rather put that money towards a holiday (and spend up big in Paris!!) and sadly gardening - my back just wont play that game anymore.
This sojourn of looking back got me thinking about how we age and change and the choices we make now. I remember a conversation that I had with one of my sisters about 15 years ago. She asked me how old I felt. "Well since I turned 18, maybe a little older, I don't really feel much older. " If she were to ask me that now, the answer would be very different.
While I certainly do not feel my age mentally and emotionally, I most certainly feel it physically, but that could be accounted for with having a chronic painful disease. Some days I feel 110! But in my heart and mind, I am still that young woman. Still unsure of myself at times, still needing the reassurance of my family and still longing to be a better version of myself, every day.
It is hard work being a person who is never really satisfied with ones self. Is there anyone out there who is? It reminds me of that cliche, 'I regret nothing; if I could do it all again, I wouldn't change a thing.'
This statement just astounds me. My life has been full of mistakes and hurts; lost opportunities and heartbreaks. I would change plenty! I would change all the times I have disappointed people; I would change all the senseless fights I had with loved ones for trivial, pitiful reasons; I would change my lifetime of bad eating habits; and I would definately change things I have said or done with the my children. I regret those things but I don't cling to them as a kind of hall pass for not making changes or amends.
Hindsight is a master that none of us can follow. So all the learnings that I have tallied up over the last 10 decades will just have to keep adding to the whole, because I cannot go back and re-do the regrets. Having said that, I do believe that we can't live our life through regrets. It's like I said, it's not a hall pass to not try and improve the here and now.
But after all the years of change and fluctuations, I am comforted to know that deep down, I am still the same person. I am still a dag, still make people laugh, still trying. I am still me and I still love Garth Brooks!
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