Memories and Dreams for the Future

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In the spring of 1974, I was living off-campus in a rented room in an old red-brick mansion across the street from Middle Tennessee State University. The first floor was furnished with impressive antiques.

The lady of the house rented three rooms to college girls. We came and went through a grand entrance, ascending and descending a beautiful staircase to get to our rooms upstairs.

My room was off the beautiful hall and the rooms rented to the other two girls were at the back of mine. Between their room was the bathroom which we all shared. We also shared one dorm-sized refrigerator, which the girl who owned it kept in her room. I shopped for groceries at the little store on the corner and did my cooking in a couple of old-style popcorn poppers.

Our three rented rooms were far from posh and had more of a second-hand feel, but the price was right at $50 per month and we did get to walk through grandeur going in and out.

I remember being in my sunny blue room upstairs on March 1, 1974. I got dressed in my green shirt and green and beige striped stovepipe pants while I waited for Ray Notgrass, whom I had met just that semester, to pick me up for a first date. As we drove to Nashville for dinner and a movie, I was impressed by his intelligence and humor. By the end of the evening, I was enamored. By the end of May, I was engaged. By the end of the year, I was married.

Ray and I always celebrate March 1. Yesterday we went to Nashville for dinner and a motivational event and a trip to Costco for groceries. It was still a romantic evening, in spite of the trip to Costco. It was a fun time of looking backward, remembering what we did and how we felt. When we signed up for the motivational event, Ray thought he recognized the address. Sure enough, it was at a church which was formerly the home of John F. Lawhon Furniture Warehouse and Showroom, where Ray had worked part-time while he was in college. The evening was the proverbial trip down memory lane in more ways than one.

It was also a time of looking forward. To be frank, we weren’t really all that excited about going to the motivational talk, but one of the speakers is the author of a goal setting program that we and our children and employees had participated in a year ago. When we found out that he was offering a free program in Nashville, we decided it might be nice to hear the author in person.

It was more than nice. It was really fantastic. The program was called Living Forward and coincided with the release yesterday of the book by the same title by Michael Hyatt and his co-author Daniel Harkavy.

On the way, I thought that well, maybe we would buy the book, but maybe not. When the program was over, we not only bought the book, but we also got in line with many other folks to have our picture made with the authors.

On a night when Ray and I were looking fondly backward, Mr. Harkavy and Mr. Hyatt encouraged us and the hundreds of other people in the audience not to drift through life but to live with the end in mind–to imagine the end of our lives, decide how we want to be remembered, and then to live our lives so that will actually happen.

The single lady next to us had just turned sixty. She has spent the last fifteen years taking care first of both of her parents; and then, after the death of her father, taking care of her mother who passed away several weeks ago. She is a writer and has spent many years in advertising. Now she is about to launch a blog about caregiving. Aren’t your proud of her!

The speakers last night are hoping that their book will help generations of people by teaching them how to get to the end of their lives having lived on purpose and with no regrets.

Your choice to homeschool your children is a choice to live on purpose with no regrets. I’m proud of you, too.

I will cause Your name to be remembered in all generations;
Therefore the peoples will give You thanks forever and ever.
Psalm 45:17

 

 

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