What is a good life?
How does one live a good life?
There are many right answers to these questions, questions I enjoy pondering regularly.
I'm watching how many people around me are living their lives, and I'm thinking about decisions I've made about life past and present.
Past
My greatest regret in life is not taking a hard look at some relationships mainly related to work situations that I spent a lot of time nurturing over years. Looking back, I was not smart about those relationships because I was too trusting and spent too much time engaging in a few relationships that were not good relationships. If I had recognized those affiliations with an honest understanding, I would have realized that those relationships were not worth the time or effort I devoted to them.
On the other hand, I always put family first even when that was challenged by people and events. I do not regret that focus at all, and because of it, I enjoy good relationships with many family members.
I enjoyed the work I did as an educator, but I should have been smarter about the professional relationships since some of those relationships were not based on honesty, dedication to the profession, and good teamwork. Teaching/learning environments are complex work environments, and in some cases, ambition and personal goals for some trump honest, positive working relationships.
I don't like the leadership structures and efforts that make up many learning/teaching environments--I found those structures to be suffocating and demeaning to many hard working, dedicated educators who would have profited from more intelligent, dedicated, honest, caring leadership models. I tried to make change in that arena as an educator, and while I was successful in some small ways, I wasn't as successful as I hoped to be. I wanted to see schools move to in ways that embraced more teacher/student/parent leadership.
Present
At present, I'm watching friends and family members making all kinds of decisions about how they are choosing to live. In some cases, I understand those decisions and in other cases, the decisions made are different from decisions I would make. Some of those differences are simply different and neither better or worse, and in a few cases people are making decisions that are worrisome and hurtful to themselves and others.
Obviously, I don't want to follow those who are making harmful decisions, and I do want to think about the decisions people make that are different than decisions I'm making, but neither better or worse, as I may want to try some of those choices out or not.
For example, yesterday I spoke to a family member who is making many different decisions than me. The decisions are neither better nor worse, but simply different. My first reaction was a bit of resentment because I wanted that person to be closer, but in thinking about the differences, there is nothing to resent since that person is simply living their best life with the positive ingredients available.
Living well will not look the same for everyone
Living well will look different from person to person since all of our lives have different elements related to health, finances, family, homes, interests, abilities, and more.
The best we can do is to live our best possible lives with the good ingredients that we have. Onward.
