They say the best things in life are free. That is not quite true. The best things in life (family, friends, love, peace, joy) do not require us to spend money. However, there is a cost to every decision we make or do not make during our journey. The best things in life are not free. They will always cost us something.
I have just finished an amazing summer with my family and friends. This was the first summer in many years that I did not fly around the world building equity and value for someone or something that was not actually my own. I was able to have more than a few girls nights, movie nights, and fun days. I cooked in my outdoor kitchen ninety percent of the summer days. I ran through my neighborhood, meeting new people, a couple of times a week. I walked my dog in the morning and actually let her enjoy the walk instead of rushing her through her business so I could get on with my day. I spent my summer living, laughing and loving everyone and everything around me. It was fantastic, but it was not free.
The choice to stay home for the summer meant not doing “the blitz” for my second book, “When the Butterfly Falls“. When I wrote my first book, “Par for the Curse“, I traveled all over the country promoting it at book festivals and clubs. This year, I quietly entered the market through social media so I could be home spending time with my family and friends. The laughter, joy, and peace I had this summer did not require me to spend one dime, but it was not without cost.
I wonder if because we say “the best things in life are free” we often neglect the best things in life. Because we do not associate a cost with the most important people and things in our lives, we sometimes forget the value of those things. Here is what I mean by that:
We do not pay money to go to sleep at night. So we neglect the value of a good night’s rest by pushing our productivity into late night hours to do things we consider more beneficial than sleep.
We do not pay money to express our love. So we often skip the deeply connected “I love you” and rush out the door or off the phone with a quick “Luv you” as a form of saying goodbye rather than a form of expressing our love.
We do not pay money for the joy of watching our children grow up. So we choose to miss a basketball game, a chess match or a dance recital because there will be other times to do that.
But let me ask you…
What if the next basketball game does not come because you (or God forbid) your child are not alive at that time? What if the next recital comes but your child is not physically able to dance anymore because of an accident? I hate to be the sprinkler on your blaze, but we all need to consider that we make a lot of assumptions about the most important things in life. Is it because we think they are free?
Life is certainly a balance. We cannot spend every moment of every day laughing, loving, kicking it with friends and sitting with family. We do need to work to sustain ourselves. There are professional things that require our attention that pose time conflicts with personal events. But are we really weighing the cost and benefit of those decisions.
Could you go to sleep, get a good night’s rest and finish that chapter in the morning? Does your boss really expect you to be the last one out of the building every night? Think about it. Are your actions aligned with what you say you value most in life?
So remember…the best things in life are NOT free and sometimes we do not realize how much they cost until we lose them.