You Matter

Guest Blogger: Welcome to the Universe, Heather Harlen!

Suzie Bichovsky-Thomas • Feb 23, 2014

How do I know Heather?  Let me count the ways: friend, writer, friend, teacher, friend, advocate, friend, published novelist, friend, cheesy music listener and horrible complainer when not doing well in a game (just saying).  Did I remember to mention friend? Excuse me… FR iend ?  Thanks for visiting my Universe, Dear Heather.  



Grateful For A Gravestone
Dear Universe,
Sometimes I wonder where all of my energy went.
A typical Saturday in February 1996: wake up, hang out with my host family, visit museums in Madrid with my roommate and some friends, take a nap, do some homework, have dinner with my host family, go out dancing at 11pm, return home at 7am, go to bed. 
A typical Saturday in February 2014: wake up with cat next to me, look out the window at more falling snow, read, call husband up to bedroom to snuggle, get up, drink coffee, have breakfast, read some more, write, watch the snow, take a walk, shovel snow, correct papers, do household chores, eat dinner, watch House of Cards, go to bed. 
On Facebook, I “like” the club we used to go to in Spain. Joy Eslava is a converted theater and still looks just as dramatic and fun as it did back when we’d literally dance all night.  We put the carpe in Carpe Diem – we seized the day and the night.  I can’t do that anymore and nor do I want to; and , I never want to forget what it felt like to be in a sparkly mini dress while dancing with a thousand people to pounding techno music.  
So thank you, Universe, for putting this gravestone in my path the other weekend. The walk was just supposed to be a morning jaunt around town, an opportunity to soak in some much-needed winter sun and get the blood flowing.  While avoiding icy patches on sidewalk near a cemetery, I saw this:
Those three words. So simple. Make Today Count. I can’t stop thinking about them.   Sue Jeffers was born the same year as my father. She died when she was only 39, my exact age.   I found one item about her on the internet, her obituary .   It turns out she was also a writer (technical writer) and she started a cancer support group called Make Today Count, hence her epitaph.
Now that I’m closer to 40 than 20, Carpe Dieming makes me really, really tired and cranky now.   Being up past eleven is a feat that makes me feel like I’ve earned a gold star.   Trying to get the most out of every single minute of every day is exhausting, especially when I’m now a wife, writer, teacher, daughter, sister, friend, and more.  
Sue’s post mortem message to any passersby is staying with me as an adult cruising toward middle age.   I’ve been trying to make each day count now in small ways.  Making sure to hand out extra compliments to students, friends, store clerks, my family, my husband.  Cutting a grading session short so I can spend more time with people rather than papers. Less multitasking. Making sure I read and write each day.  Playing with our cat every time she stares at me.  Which is a lot.  Carpe Dieming would probably put me in the hospital for dehydration and exhaustion, anyway. Making Today Count energizes me. 
So thank you, Sue Jeffers, for your words of wisdom from beyond.  
How can you find small ways to make today count?
Heather Harlen is a writer and teacher.  She is currently working on the sequel to her first novel, HOPE YOU GUESS MY NAME: A THRILLER.  You can find more about at www.heatherharlen.com

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