KALEIDOSCOPE

This week I came face to face with another could-a, should-a, would-a event in my life.  Since I don’t subscribe to the local paper, my mother keeps me informed about the contents of the daily obituary pages.  She called Wednesday to ask if I knew that an uncle of my ex-husband’s had died.  Although he was 92, I was not expecting his death.  Three months earlier, his wife had passed away, and at the visitation, I told this uncle that I would bring my boys out and we would visit sometime.

As the funeral proceeded, I began to think about, and regret, all the could-a, should-a, would-a letters, visits, and activities that I have planned into my schedule but never accomplished.   As the holiday season commences this year, it is time to put an end to the could-a, should-a, would-a excuses that stand in the way of accomplishing the little tasks that other people appreciate.

Here is the could-a, should-a, would-a.  The last three months have been extremely chaotic and we hadn’t gotten out to see him; so as Thanksgiving approached, I thought that I would take the Friday after the holiday to visit relatives in nursing homes.  At the visitation and funeral today, I had the “I could-a made, should-a made, and I would-a made time in my schedule to have gone to visit him.  But…?”  It was the “but” that I couldn’t finish.  I really couldn’t find a “but” for a reason.