In which...

I've been revisiting some old favorite TV shows (not that there aren't new ones I love too) but sometimes a girl needs the shows that evoke memories of when life seemed easier.  I don't know about you, but I'm a connector.  I like to connect people to each other. I connect scents and flavors to memories.  I connect books and movies to what was going on in life at that time.  For example, the author Patrick McManus is firmly and deeply linked with Youngways Guesthouse in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe and the weeks during which my dad was recovering from ACL surgery.  I can still hear the laughter rolling out of room six.  Or the Friends series finale - I only skipped one class in grad school and it was to watch that time in my tv life close in real time.  I still can't hear Hoobastanks 'The Reason' without also picturing Central Perk.  Yes, it's ridiculous.  But all that to say, I'm rewatching Private Practice and I love the naming criteria for each of the episodes.  They each
lead off with "In Which" --I just think it's fun.

That being said this post should lead off with 'In which Joy considers next steps'.  We all know life is short.  This is a fact that causes panic attacks for me - what if I miss something! The utterance "you only get one shot" is enough to send this girl into full blown paper bag breathing because one time just isn't acceptable.  I believe in living all out, and lately, I haven't been.  The last few years there have been major chunks of life that I think have just been existed and truthfully it's really easy to fall into that.  There are the looming decisions that we have no say in - like job security and projects changing the face of our neighborhood.  But there are also the day to day decisions like therapies for Jamesey or evaluating what school district to enroll our kids (we love ours by the way).