Tool For Tuesday: What Are You Waiting For?

Posted on October 8, 2013 by dianabletter

 

Gladys Bletter's cigarette was her best weapon.

Gladys Bletter’s cigarette was her best weapon.

Suppose you are on your death bed. What’s left to say?

I’d like to think I’ll say only the most meaningful things when the time is running out. I’d bring up all the love that is welling in my heart. I’d drop the resentments because I don’t want to trail them into the next part of my journey. (Though I’ve heard it said the people bear no grudges in heaven but why take chances?) I’d apologize to whomever I’d hurt and accept anyone’s apology to me. I’d open my heart wide, even wider, and embrace the people around me just as they are. I’d work hard, really hard, to turn whatever negative feelings I had into positive feelings—or at least to try to gain a different perspective so that I could accept and make peace with any person and every situation.

Often times, a woman would come into my mother’s antique jewelry store. The woman would try on a ring, let’s say, and then waffle about whether she wanted to buy it. “Don’t be a shmuck,” my mother would chide. “You want his second wife to get it all?”

We don’t know how much time we have in this life. Today might be it. What are we waiting for?

Tool For Tuesday: What Are You Waiting For?

About dianabletter

Diana Rachel Bletter's latest book is The Loving Yourself Book for Women: A Practical Guide to Boost Self-Esteem, Heal Your Inner Child, and Celebrate the Woman You Are, an Amazon top-seller in several categories. A Loving Yourself Book for Tweens is forthcoming. Diana and her husband have six children and an unofficially-adopted daughter from Ethiopia. Her other books include The Invisible Thread: A Portrait of Jewish American Women (with photographs by Lori Grinker), shortlisted for a National Jewish Book Award. Her novel, A Remarkable Kindness, (HarperCollins) was published in 2015. She is the First Prize Winner of Moment Magazine's 2019 Fiction Contest. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Commentary, tabletmag, Glamour, The Forward, The North American Review, Times of Israel, and is a reporter for Israel21C, and many other publications. She is a member of the local hevra kadisha, the burial circle, and a Muslim-Jewish-Christian-Druze women's group in the nearby town of Akko. Oh, yes, she likes learning languages (up to 7), snowboarding and climbing trees.
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8 Responses to Tool For Tuesday: What Are You Waiting For?

  1. juliabarrett says:
    October 8, 2013 at 12:55 pm

    Love it.

    Reply
  2. Marylin Warner says:
    October 8, 2013 at 1:07 pm

    Your mother’s customers probably came into her shop especially for her smart-mouth, wise advice. I think it’s great.
    She told you to lie when you gave the eulogy, but telling these true gems about her is even better. You’re a good daughter, Diana, and although your advice isn’t smart-mouth, it’s sound and true.
    Good job.

    Reply
    • dianabletter says:
      October 9, 2013 at 7:08 am

      Thank your Marylin – I am channeling her humor more and more. It is really incredible. Thanks for pointing this out to me!

      Reply
  3. Anonymous says:
    October 10, 2013 at 8:51 am

    “Don’t be a shmuck.You want his second wife to get it all?”I remember the line well.

    Reply
  4. Tracy Campbell says:
    October 15, 2013 at 6:13 pm

    Diana, you’re a woman after my own heart. People will always let us down, but the important thing is to forgive. We are only responsible for our actions. Your mom sounds like she was a firecracker. Her attitude oozes out of the photo. I just love it! 🙂

    Reply

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