Good morning yesterday. You wake up and time has slipped away. And suddenly it’s hard to find the memories you left behind.”
– The Times Of Your Life-Paul Anka-1975.
The memories I have that stem from some of the “best” decisions I ever made remain indelibly planted in the recesses of mind.
In all honesty I can’t point to any one decision as being the best one I ever made but there were a few that stuck out. The first best decision my wife and I made (I couldn’t make this one alone) was to bring a child into this world to love and later on mold him into a vision of values that would endear him to society. With my now 28 year old son still needing guidance from dad to help him weather some of the “storms” in his life I cannot help but feel becoming a parent was and is by far the most difficult but rewarding personal decision I ever made.
My next best decision came when I went from being a “Secular Jew” to a “Torah Observant Jew”. Religion (most religions) keep you rooted deeply with your family, ethical behavior along with a specific belief and trust in G-d. When “life events” happen you have a clear path of what you should do. As hard as it was to understand I came to realize things are not always bashert (meant to be). Seeing my son becoming a man at the ripe age of 13 reading effortlessly from the Torah is not something I will ever forget.
After tolling in the insurance business for many years the decision was made that in order to carve out a better and more secure financial future for my family a change in careers had to be made. From that I joined the tumultuous world of mortgage banking. Before I knew it the industry came crashing down taking with it the professional lives of untold numbers of people. Was this one of the best decisions I ever made? In the beginning the answer was yes. After the dust settled the answer was no.
The last best career/profession decision I made was to tip toe into the unknown waters of the Staffing Industry. As you can see lo these many years later I am still recruiting while finding ways to expand on my career. Providing my clients with a “write-up” (summary of background and experience) of the candidates I was presenting to them rekindled my love of writing. I spend my days recruiting and writing with each article being a dedication to my beloved late mother who always saw me as the next Ernest Hemingway or F. Scott Fitzgerald. This was truly one of THE best decisions I ever made.
What are some of the best decisions YOU ever made? As you look back are you ever left to wonder what would have been had you not decided to do this or that. Where do you think your life would be now? It’s hard to imagine things being different than they are today or living a different life in a different place had your decisions been different.
We cherish the memories of the past while continuing to dream our dreams for the years to come. Decisions you made. Decisions I made. The open ended question we will ponder at some point is what were the choices that were put before us so we were able to decide on a decision.
None of us knows for sure what the future holds. Nor is the future necessarily ours to decide. Despite if you believe the prior statement is true or not there will still be decisions to make. What will wind up being the best decisions we wound up making under a whole new set of parameters.
I have to agree with you Joel and Kathleen. Marrying my wife and to start writing again.
Larry,
I apologize for taking so long to respond to your comment. You made two decisions that obviously worked out well for you. In the case of your writing, that decision has made a difference for many people. Thank you, Larry, for your comment.
Joel my first best decision was marrying my husband because he enriched my life with so much love. The second best decision was listening to my dreams when they told me I had breast cancer missed by the medical community and the tests on which they relied, because my Dreams saved my life. Thank you for asking. Great article.
Kathleen, Thank you for reading my article, your precious comment, your class, not to mention your graciousness, and last but not least your humanity. Thank you once again.