Days You Get Through, Days You Get To

Some days you need to get through and some days you want to get to.

Our cozy little world was thrown for a loop when my husband woke up with a pain in his right side. Not a little, a LOT of pain. After a few minutes of web searching, we realized that a feeling that intense is nothing to mess around with, so we went to the emergency room. A couple of scary turns and five days later, he was finally home.

The night before the pain struck, we were out with friends having a great time. There were no signs of what was to come. This made those days in the hospital confusing, not to mention long and scary…days we just needed to get through.

And the day he came home, the smallest of conveniences felt luxurious.

This is the day we wanted to get to.

The experience got me thinking about how my day to day is spent. And it made me realize there are too many ‘get through’ days and not enough ‘get to’ days.

I work so that I can sustain a lifestyle along with its necessities. Shelter, food, transportation, and a little entertainment. But much of the time outside of work is spent talking, thinking, and even doing more work, leaving little time for other things.

As a result, family time, physical activity, reading, writing, volunteering, and doing anything leisurely feels timed and rushed. Simply pushing through my day to get to something I want to do only to rush through it is unreasonable. Especially, when life can change at any instant.

As I analyzed this epiphany, I realized that, as usual, I am the one pulling the strings here. I’m scratching the surface on the things that matter to me and not building depth on any of them. I can do something different. For instance, be intentional with my time and create better boundaries to protect it. I can stop avoiding things that require some effort on my part. Actually, do the things I know I need to do – like go to bed early so that I can wake up early and seize the day.  

I’ll start by sprinkling some of the things I love into my day. Make time for movement, make time to write and make time for a conversation with someone that I love.  I know how much better I feel doing everything else when I do these things.

I don’t want a life full of days I’m just getting through. I want more days that I’m actually getting to.

Do you have more days you’re getting through… or getting to?