Today is one of those . . . memorable . . . days for me. It’s a double-whammy of a memorable day for me, actually.

Sixteen years ago, this is the day that someone in the medical profession first uttered the word “cancer” in association with . . . me. (There was no diagnosis. Yet. Just the official beginning of a journey I didn’t want to be taking.)

And eight years ago, this is the day that my mom died.

Heavy stuff for just a regular day in September.

Instead of feeling weighed down by these anniversaries and wallowing in sadness, I choose to move forward in a different direction. With time and perspective, I can see that I learned some rather important life-lessons from both of these . . . happenings. And, really, they both kind of boil down to the same essential lesson . . .

Don’t wait.

If there is something you want to do, do it now.

If there is something you want to say, say it now.

Because we aren’t guaranteed a future. At some point, the bottom will drop out of our comfortable worlds. We shouldn’t assume we have time. It’s best to strive to live our lives without regrets. (As Warren Zevon famously said, “Enjoy every sandwich.”)

I like to use this day – September 10 – as a gentle reminder to myself . . . to live a life where I “do good” . . . for myself and for those I encounter. I don’t always get it right, but I try. Yesterday, this quote popped up in my Instagram feed, and I think it provides a lovely and gentle reminder for me — and maybe for you, too . . .

If I admire something about someone, I tell them. We humans are so fragile. It’s important we give people their flowers while they are still here. Never admire quietly.

— Chimamanda Adichie

So today . . . I choose to celebrate September 10 . . . with flowers.
No regrets, my friends.
That’s my goal.

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I took the photos in this post yesterday . . . in a special section of my garden I have dedicated to my mom. On my first Mother’s Day without her, Tom helped me expand one of my garden beds, and I plant some of her garden favorites there every year. This year, I filled the space with dahlias (the same dahlias I grew from seed last spring under my grow lights). She loved her dahlias — and I love the way they’re blooming . . . now . . . on this day.

(More of them should be blooming right now . . . but the damn deer ate all the buds off a couple of the plants long ago; the buds are coming back, though . . . It looks like one of the new buds should even open today!) (And wouldn’t that be fitting?)