Stop waiting for the "right" time to enjoy the little things.
When I was very young, my grandmother gifted me a doll wrapped in plastic tucked inside a flimsy box. It was given on the condition, that under no circumstances do I remove the doll from its original packaging. That, she said, was the real value that I would see when I was older.
With countless moves, the aging doll traveled with me, staring from behind the yellowing plastic as the years went by. The awkward packaging did not allow it to stand up on a shelf, instead, it was reduced to laying on a closet floor, or in a forgotten drawer.
It never brought me any joy, in fact, it was more of a burden to my young self to care for something I couldn't even play with. After all, I didn't want to disappoint my grandmother.
At 30, I still owned that box, which was falling apart at every seam and cracked throughout the warn-down plastic. I still dared not touch the doll inside. It was put into a larger box and left in a shed until I decided what to do with it. Certainly, it held no real value, monetary or otherwise. Year by year it meant less and less.
Finally, while cleaning out the shed a few years later, I stumbled upon the unsmiling and dirty doll once more. Frustrated with the number of times I had to move it and see it; never used for its intended purpose, I cracked open the plastic and let it clumsily spill out.
There it was.
And I still felt nothing. What a waste, to carry this thing from childhood into adulthood without a fond memory between us. What could have been the adventures of a little girl and her doll was reduced to an object destined for the trash.
Open the box.
Light the expensive candle.
Use the fancy plates.
In essence, what are we really waiting for? Increased value? Future happiness? The burden to lift? The guilt to subside?
The real relief came only after I got rid of the doll completely. When it was no longer in my presence, I could be free from the hold that it had on me.
How many things do we have laying around our house that are for special occasions, or the "right time"?
Before we spend years lugging around the weight of expectations, it's time to enjoy what we have when we have it. Don't let it take 30+ years to learn that lesson.
Open the box!
