A Mission From God

I've been pondering this Mission From God that I've been on for the last ten years to convince my parents to move out of their home and into a kinder, gentler retirement community.  They've listened to me and done what they wanted to do - as is their right - which is NOT move out of their home and into a retirement community.  They join a large crowd of people and institutions not doing what I want them to do.  This is a Big Win for the human race, given my ability to make almost everything worse.

Recently, my father took a series of falls and my mother can't get him back on his feet anymore. It appears that they've accepted the fact that they can't stay in their home anymore.  I hope things work out.  I'm not sure that they will - some people take change harder than others and leaving your home of 55 years on fairly short notice is a whopper.  My Mission included a slow, controlled liquidation of 55 years worth of stuff.  Also ignored.  Now with a sudden shift the liquidation is going to be hard and fast.  If only they had done what I wanted when I wanted them to . . . oh, right, that almost never works out well.

I recently returned from a tough trip home and it looks like I'm heading back there before too long.  My sister is doing all of the heavy lifting with my parents and my presence is going to be the Right Thing To Do.  It's all pretty inconvenient seeing as I just made the long trip back.  If they had only done what I wanted . . . oh, snap, I'm thinking about myself again.  

Funny thing, this service.  Doing what needs to be done not what I want to do.