Someday is not a day of the week

I attended the World Eco 2008 conference in Brasilia, Brazil yesterday. An Australian presenter, Paul Downtown, showed an image of a bulletin board (much like one you'd see in the front yard of your local church or school) with the statement "Someday is not a day of the week" written on it. The significance of this statement for him, of course, is that we cannot further procrastinate on changing the way we live and exist in this world, as our current practices are unsustainable. His point here is that plans need to be made today regarding how to change the course of global warming and climate change, not simply pushed off to "someday" because it's something complicated and more than we want to deal with at the moment. Issues pushed to "someday" rarely get revisit, and if they do, often action taken to address them happens piecemeal in reaction mode versus strategically.

It's my belief that this statement, "Someday is not a day of the week," can and should apply to anything that is of priority to you in your life. And here's some food for thought...maybe everything of importance (big or small) should have a plan.

I know what you're probably thinking...why do we have to be so darn rigid? (Adriano dings me on this sometimes too.) Yet, I still persist because I think this is important. When something has a plan you (1) can stop agonizing over it because you now have a decision about when action will be taken. But, probably even more importantly, (2) you can really analyze what action needs to be taken to fully prepare for that new situation.

Case in point, Adriano and I have been thinking about having a baby. We both feel mentally ready to take on the challenge of parenthood, but situationally it's not the right time. I live in two countries...the US and Brazil. I can hardly leave my niece, Analise, after spending a week with her. There is no way someone could pry me away from own child for weeks at a time. Not to mention, imagine the social stigma that would be attached with that one!

Regardless of all the reasons not to have a baby now, Adriano and I really considered sending all caution to the wind and "taking the plunge." That is, before I said, "let's just do a pros and cons list on this before we make the final decision." Five minutes into the exercise it was clear that we were not having a baby right now. It was a bad decision from every angle of our lives (financially, professionally, and personally). It would have been bad news.

Yet, by doing this exercise, now the conversation was seriously started. If we were making the decision not to have a baby now, then when would we have a baby? What did we need to prepare for to make the process the smoothest as possible for us? What were our goals for this event? © 2008 - Brianna Sylver - All rights reserved

For both of us, this is a priority that we've not tabled to "someday," but rather August 2009. That's when I'll stop taking birth control and we'll let God take over from there. Will we revise this date as August nears? Maybe. Life is ever-evolving, right? The important thing is that we've made the commitment to revisit this issue in August of next year and by doing so have inadvertently communicated to one another how important each other's priorities are to us individually.

© 2008 - Brianna Sylver - All rights reserved