I Need The Occasional Reminder To Not Use Busy As An Excuse

Years and years ago, an old friend of mine doled out some wise advice. He told me to refrain from using "busy" as an excuse because life is short. You can always make time for friends and family even if it's just showing up for a few minutes or grabbing a quick lunch. At the time, I was working over 100 hours a week. I worked. Ate. Slept. That was pretty much it.

I've held on to this bit of wisdom throughout my life and I've shared it with others when they've needed a gentle reminder. On occasion, it's me who has needed a reminder.

That happened today.

We had planned on having a couple of our favorite humans over for dinner tonight. However, mid-week I cancelled.

Last weekend, Lisa came down with a horrible sinus infection. She took part of the weekend to rest. Between that and the large amount of custom orders we had, Lisa wasn't able to get a lot of Up For Grabs items done. We also had more custom orders.

We needed this weekend to get caught up. Lisa had a lot of items to make in her woodshop. I had a lot of work to do in the Bodacious DIY Dog Mom Project Workshop and deskwork to do. There was no time to spend a half day prepping for dinner.

This morning, we were sitting on the front porch. One of the favorite humans who had been invited said she was going to make dinner for us. She understood how busy we were and wanted to treat us to dinner.

I stumbled on my words. I was exhausted. My back pain was blowing through the roof. My hands hurt from screwing in almost 200 eye hooks and tying almost the same amount of windchime pieces.

More so, I didn't know what to say. The woman who was supposed to be eating at our table this evening was going to provide dinner for us.

I thought that was incredibly wonderful. She could have been upset that we had cancelled or let down, but nope.

That's when the proverbial hand whupped me upside the head.

Yep. The reminder.

The wise advice I had received almost 2 decades ago flooded my brain. I'm not going to lie. I felt like a piece of shit. Guilty. I spent a few minutes kicking my own ass.

Here I was. The woman who passed on the wise advice to never use "busy" as an excuse because life is short. And, what did I do just a few short days ago?

I used busy as an excuse.

I messed up.

Early this afternoon, I met up with that favorite human for a quick chat. I let her know that we were going to have a pizza party this coming Friday. I was going to make homemade pizza, a salad, and fresh fruit with my chocolate fondue. Not only was she invited, but also her daughter and her daughter's friend.

I told her that I didn't care what came up or if we got 100 more custom orders during the week...

We. Would. Not. Cancel.

So, we're having a pizza party on Friday.

And, I got a sharp reminder.

Do not use busy as an excuse.

Life is short.

There isn't always tomorrow or next week or next month.

Remember that.