I have converted to loving all things British...Masterpiece Theater, Downton Abbey, Call the Midwife. Here's a little known secret about me...you know one of those things that people say "tell something know one knows about you!"...here's one of those things. When I was young I used to speak in a British/English accent. My girlfriend Teresa and I would call the local radio station, KBGO, and talk to the DJ (I cannot remember his name for the life of me) in our English accents. We'd request songs and just chat with him like young girls did back then with the DJ. Everything was on AM then, no FM in the dark ages. It was music from the 60s, The Temptations "My Girl", the Supremes, The Zombies, American Bandstand music...get the picture?). Anyway, one day our DJ friend asked us to come down to the station and make some "promos" for him. Seriously! No, really, and we did it. Our parents took us downtown where the station was and if I remember correctly DROPPED US OFF and came back and picked us up. It was a blast. We'd do the little sing song theme "KBG0 1580" and several others. The one I remember the most and the one I loved to hear on the radio was when we got tickled and were just laughing hilariously out loud and he taped it. You'd just hear this little 30 second blurb of us laughing on the radio! I long ago lost contact with my friend Teresa. She moved to Corsicana when we were still young and I lost track of her...you know we didn't have cell phones, Facebook or the internet back then. KBGO is still alive and well in Waco, playing classic music on 95FM.
Today I watched a movie, by accident really. I had never heard of it before. It was called the "Best Exotic Marigold Hotel". The scenario about it was that it was about some older British retired folks going to India to live out their retirement....only to find when they get there their new home was a dilapidated hotel. As you can imagine, there were many lessons to learn by all while in this less than adequate hotel.
One of these elder ladies, Evelyn, had decided she was going to blog about the adventure. Communication was somewhat strained with her family and she had just recently lost her husband. Plus phone calling was going to be difficult from India. I loved this gal. She is a lot like me in many ways. I loved what she wore and I loved her courageousness.
Toward the end of the movie, as they are coming around to all the lessons they have learned, there were conversations that gave amazing insight.
These statements really stood out.
At the end of the show where there was a question about what were they going to do, go home, stay where they were, go someplace else...etc., the following conversation occurred.
Muriel to Evelyn..."What will you do?"
Evelyn..."I'm not sure what I shall do. Nothing here has worked out quite like I expected."
Muriel..."Most things don't. But you know, sometimes what happens instead is the good stuff."
As they are all making some pretty major decisions about the last years of their lives Evelyn's last comments are these:
"The only real failure is the failure to try. The measure of success is how we cope with disappointment, as we always must. We came here and we tried, all of us in our different ways. Can we be blamed for feeling that we are too old to change, too scared of disappointment to start it all again? We get up in the morning. We do our best. Nothing else matters. But it's also true that the person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing. All we know about the future, is that it will be different. But perhaps what we fear is that it will be the same. So we must celebrate the changes because as someone once said "everything will be alright in the end, and if it's not alright then trust me, it's not yet the end."
So, Evelyn, you have me thinking. Risks have always been something I'm very cautious about. Sometimes the fear of change has me doing nothing. But your right, the fear that things will just stay and be the same, is a bigger fear. So here's to celebrating, and courage and taking risks and knowing that in doing that "it's not yet the end and everything will be alright in the end!"
Proverbs 3:5-6
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight
Encourage One Another, continuing the journey on fresh paths.
Love and blessings to you, xoxo.
