My wife is an amazing woman.
Last year, when her birthday came around, I asked her where she’d like me to take her for her birthday dinner and, much to my surprise, she said, “Dairy Queen.” I would have taken her to the finest restaurant available, but Dairy Queen it was.
We had a wonderful time. Sitting side-by-side in a booth, enjoying a burger and fries, followed by a Blizzard; it doesn’t get much better than that.
Now run the clock forward to a few days ago. It was my turn to pick out the place to enjoy a birthday meal. Remembering the happy memory from last year, I choose Dairy Queen too.
Well, turns out the world has changed a lot since last year.
This little thing called Covid-19 stopped us from being able to eat inside. So, we had to take our order home. Seems there was a change of cooks too, for the fries were cold and rubbery (may have come from the same batch Sonja and I ate from last year) and the burger and blizzard were okay, but just okay. The magic was gone.
That leads me to what I want you to think about today:
There is a difference between repetition and repeating something.
Repetition happens all the time; repeating (in the sense I am using it) almost never.
We’ve all done it.
We go to a nice restaurant and enjoy a great meal and two weeks later we go back to enjoy the same meal, but it is just not as good. Why? We were trying to repeat a special one-of-a-kind event, and it just can’t happen. Life moves on. People change, we change, circumstances change, and to try to hold on to the past by trying a repeat is to set ourselves up for disappointment.
There’s only one time to see anything, do anything, or go anywhere for the first time. After that, it’s just a repetition That does not have to be a bad thing, but we must be mindful of not trying to put last year’s memories in today’s memory trunk; there’s just not enough room for today’s memories and joys and last year’s too.
The ONE THING for today: Instead of settling for a stale and disappointing facsimile of yesterday’s happy moments, determine to make new and specials moments today. Or as the philosopher is apt to say, “Carpi diem!”
The ONE THING 
Brad and I once ate at the Carpe Diem restaurant in Charlotte (on Elizabeth St. close to Presbyterian Hospital). Over the many ensuing years we would say that we wanted to go back again. Just before moving, I pushed to go back but then the virus and then the announcement that it was closing forever. Maybe we were saved from a disappointing repeat. We are left with the happy memory of the distant past. 😎
C
Sent from my iPad
>>
LikeLike
You captured perfectly the essence of the blog’s message. You are probably right, it would not have been the same.
LikeLike