"We're Riding on the Escalator of Life"

Sometimes something as simple as a song title can really make you think.  If you recognize the title of this post, you probably remember the song of the same name that was popular in the mid-80s.  Despite the song's notoriety as a one hit wonder, the profoundness of its title--the analogy of life being an escalator--really rang true to me the other day.  The moment we are born, we step onto "The Escalator of Life."  Scared and unsure, we begin our lives with our parents guiding us onto the steps--supporting us and helping us as we gain our footing.  Preceding us are our older siblings, parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents.  As we ride the escalator, we are participating in life's journey.  There is no jumping off the escalator, or running backwards on it--the escalator propels us forward, unfaltering…persistent.  Our parents hold our hand, and soon we let go and hold onto the rails by ourselves.  As we move upward along the escalator, our perspective improves.  From further up the escalator, we can see more of our surroundings.  Similarly, as we age and mature, we move up our "escalator," our gained life experiences increasing our perspective, making us wiser (hopefully).  Up ahead we notice our great-grandparents and grandparents stepping off the escalator and onto the next level.  This is where our loved ones, and eventually we, will pass on to the afterlife.  When we lose our parents, and for some our older siblings, we have no one left in front of us on the escalator.  The reality is that our escalator ride and our life will have to eventually come to an end.  It can be scary, seeing the escalator step disappear under the next level, knowing we must disembark from the security and comfort of our ride.  However, if we know we have something wonderful and exciting ahead--the prospect of the afterlife--it becomes less fearful.  We see our loved ones waving to us from the next level and when we step off--the hand of our deceased parent or loved one will reach out to us and guide us safely off the escalator.

Laundry

I'm a big procrastinator.  I wait until the last minute and then scramble to get it done.  I put off little things until they become bigger things.  Now this doesn't happen with everything, but it does happen with things I either am afraid of failing or don't really want to do.   Two examples are losing weight and laundry.  I'm waiting on my laundry right now.  It's 12:06 am on September 12.  I have to be at work tomorrow morning and I should already have all my laundry done, but I don't.  I did two loads and have 2 more to do, which I'll do tomorrow.  Thankfully I have a small hamper and tackle it when it's full, which is weekly.  I just don't do it until really late on Sunday.  Unfortunately, I don't reel in my weight as easily.  I got to the point where I really need to lose the weight now as it's affecting my health.  It's kind of like not doing laundry for a couple of months.  It's not going to get done overnight and even if I do begin it, I won't see results for a while.  Unlike laundry, losing weight is something I want to do--I 'm just afraid of failing at it, so I keep putting it off.  I started exercising last week and did 5 days in a row but now I've had 3 off days.  This is not good and it's setting me out for failure.  At first it was just one day.  Something small and heck, "I can get right back on track tomorrow."  Well, then it was two days and three days.  Little things are on their way to becoming big things.  Tomorrow I have to begin again or I'm sabotaging myself.  I have to dig deeper and figure out how to get myself back on track.  Well, the buzzer went off and the dryer is finished.  That's it for tonight.