THE FUTURE IS NOW

Don't Put It Off

“Look at the horizon.”

That’s the advice my brother gave me as I was turning green from seasickness as we bounced across the waves in a small boat off the coast of Marathon, Florida. My brother is the owner and captain of a salmon fishing boat in Alaska, so his advice meant something. My brothers and I don’t get together often enough; we had planned this snorkeling trip for weeks. The morning we were to set out, the weather wasn’t great but it wasn’t bad enough to cancel. We just needed to get to the reef. Once we were snorkeling around under water, the thirty minutes of the boat rising and falling … and smashing through the waves … would be worth it. Taking my brother’s advice, I made it, and the snorkeling was great.

Another time I was told to look at the horizon was when I was in flight school. I was flying in the left seat, the pilot in command of a Cessna-152. My very own Cessna-152! I had purchased the plane as an investment. My plan was to learn how to fly—and then rent out my plane to other students to help pay for it. The plan was progressing nicely. I was on an X-T flight, which is short for Extra Training. During the previous lesson, I became disoriented on a training flight over the ocean. The blue of the Florida sky looked like the blue of the Atlantic Ocean. This X-T flight was intended to overcome that disorientation. My instructor told me, “Look at the horizon,” and it worked.

When people now say to look at the horizon, it’s usually a metaphor for looking to the future. Most of our plans have been completed and our goals have been reached. Many things went a little differently than expected, but we are basically just where we thought we would be.

And what does the future look like now that it’s just the two of us? What’s next? My husband and I have been in this state of limbo for a few years. Both of us move through our usual daily routines day after day, while the days seem to pass by faster and faster.

For a self-proclaimed lifelong planner, this is a strange place to be. For so many years, my husband and I were both so focused on the kids and their goals—and how we would pay for them—that we didn’t talk about what we would do once they had flown the nest.  It always seemed so far off into the future.

So here we are, and I have a lot of questions. Save or spend? Splurge or hoard? Do we continue to work as hard as we can? Or do we slow down and take the advice of a friend who says, “Stop and smell the roses.” Maybe we should throw caution into the wind and live every day as if it were our last. That plan sounds more fun than playing it safe and continuing to do what we’re doing.

I know I’ve told you that my husband is NOT a planner. So it has now come down to this moment. We are at a crossroads—I know that’s such an Oprah thing to say—but our future, and the limitless options of what it can be, is up to me … and it has just occurred to me that the future is now.

Photo by Anthony Cantin on Unsplash