Live a little!

Happy Harry

“Dreaming when Dawn's Left Hand was in the Sky

I heard a Voice within the Tavern cry,

'Awake, my Little ones, and fill the Cup

Before Life's Liquor in its Cup be dry.'”

                                     II in the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the things you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

                                                Mark Twain

Every year, as I approach another birthday, I feel that old shiver of restless energy begin to make its way up my spine. Another year gone and what do you have to show for it, I ask myself. How many years do you have ahead? I begin to see suggestions everywhere, like the quotes above. One of them was posted on my Facebook page by a friend just yesterday. I haven't noticed the Rubaiyat in decades, yet I picked it off the shelf this morning and opened to this quote. Another warning came on an advertisement inside a credit card statement: 'Don't wait until it's too late!' That's the way the universe works—when there's a message that needs to get through my thick skull, it comes to me in every conceivable way. Road signs, headlines, happenstance and serendipity—until I say, “Okay! I get it! You can stop now!”

I saw on the news last night, young Prince Harry's escapade in Vegas. As my son so colorfully says, 'the crown jewels were on display'. But I say—go Harry! Have some fun while you are young. It must be awful to be in the public spotlight twenty-four seven. My friends and I went skinny-dipping in the Gulf of Mexico on my 50^th birthday! We weren't half as pretty as Harry, trust me, but it was an experience of freedom and fun. I'm glad no one was there with a cell phone, but I'm not at all sorry I did it. Everyone should go skinny-dipping at least once in their lives.

I agree with Twain; the worst possible outcome would be to get to the end of life and realize you haven't lived. It would be sad beyond bearing to look back and be disappointed by the fact that you had played it safe; dotted all your i's, crossed all your t's, obeyed all the rules and had no good stories to tell. Life is a moving feast to be enjoyed, celebrated and deeply appreciated.

                                                 In the spirit,

                                                 Jane