My local library has a policy where they no longer alert you if a book you checked out is overdue. They wait for you to appear, perhaps sheepishly, and then whack you with the reality that the ‘free loaner book’ just cost you three dollars and twenty cents. I never grumble at the fee I owe. It is, after all, my fault. They told me when I checked it out when it was due back in. Second, it is the public library! If I cannot toss a few dollars towards this worthy cause, then who can I?
But having something overdue does not just pertain to your library books or your car inspection, or annual physical. It can reflect what you owe yourself. Some of us go about our lives running from one place to another. Some of us are such good caretakers of others that we start to feel indispensable. And, some of us say– “Someday, I’ll do…” As someone who has lived a good life but regularly put too much of life on hold, I know that someday will never happen unless you stop and make it so.
We can keep saying one day, but imagine this…right now you are an overdue library book and the fine is racking up. Shall you pay it? After all, it for a worthy cause.
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? Mary Oliver, from The Summer Day