Discover. Go on adventures. Find things out. Learn about something you love. See a place you've always wanted to, and then come back. Or don't. Discover people, things, and languages. Discover secrets and the apparent. Discover yourself, and then someone else. Discover the impossible. Become an adventurer, a hero, an investigator, a searcher. Become a discoverer. Be curious. For once in your life, don't sit still.
Enjoy. Enjoy small things, like pink carnations and stovetop espresso at five in the morning. Enjoy your food. Enjoy nourishing your body. Enjoy health. Enjoy every breath you breathe. Enjoy every day. Act like you only have minutes left of your life, and enjoy them.
Soothe. Drink tea. Run your fingers through your hair. Take a bath with Epsom salts. I dare you. Learn about your body. Its curves and crevices, the way it moves, what makes it relax and tense, the freckles along your neckline. Know yourself inside and out. Buy the good sheets, and then sleep on them. Rub lavender oil on your chest. Learn yoga. Breathe deeper, longer.
Sing. Sing everywhere. In the shower. In the kitchen. At the bust stop. At school. Under your breath while chopping wood in your backyard. Sing about everything. Your wife. Your mother. Your gladiolas. Your blue plates. Sing. All the time, no matter what you sound like. Make a habit of it.
Embrace. Embrace people, the ones you love, and the ones you don't. Embrace your insecurities and your fears and your flaws and your inconsistencies. Hold them tight to your chest. Embrace yourself, all of you. Your goodness and kindness and wonder. Because you are beautiful too.
Wake up. Early. At least twice a week. Before the sun is up, so that you can watch her blink. Rub sleep out of your eyes. Put the kettle on. Wrap yourself in a quilt and sit outside. Read a poem in the dim light being born. Move slow. Relish this.
Believe. Have faith, no matter how absurd people think you are. This life will be better when you know that it is not all that there is. And also that you are tiny and big. Try to understand that. Try to learn it. Try to believe it. There is someone greater than you out there. It is not your task to find Him, but rather to accept Him. He always waits with open arms.
Mess up. Do something wrong. On purpose, and not. Make mistakes, and love them. Get a "B" on a test, because you'll survive that. Remember that it's okay to be late for work, so long as you bring coffee and donuts with you. Fall down, get back up. Write down your mistakes. Do not forget them. They shape you. They grow you. They are necessary.
Learn. Something. Anything. Learn to cook. Learn a language. Learn to survive in the wild with only the clothes on your back. Learn to be brave, or to be afraid. Learn which side of the bed he prefers. Learn to lose, with grace and dignity and honor. Learn about plants and birds and honeybees. Learn to sail. Learn something. Learn anything.
Laugh. Sometimes at yourself, oftentimes with others. At your cat at midnight, or your mother on the phone during the weekend. Laugh at the jokes that are funny, and sometimes at the ones that aren't. It is okay to be courteous about humor. Laugh big and roaring or tiny and barely. But most importantly, laugh. You will live longer if you do.
Read. Read Dickens. Read Tolstoy. And Keats. And Sendak. And Austen. Read "The History of Love" because it will change your life. Read "Peter Pan," at least thirty times. Read 1 John. Read to your children. And your wife. And the old man in the retirement facility every Wednesday. Read Neruda. Read Foer. Read Dickinson. And Bemelmans. And Whitman. Read poetry, and know it. Read fairytales, and believe them. Read novels, and cry. And laugh. And hope. And dream. But for goodness' sake, just read. At least three books a year. This is imperative.
Dream. At night, long and hard. But also in the day. Daydream about everything. The sofa you always wanted. The man you'd like to marry. The job you aspire to have. Dream that you are the greatest writer who ever lived. Or a princess. Dream you ran away, and to where you would go and what you would change your name to. Dream about breakfast tomorrow. Dream about hydrangeas and peonies. Dream about hot, sticky summers and the coldest winter possible. Dream about peaches. And the past. And the present. And the future.
Visit. Give it up and just pay the gas money. It's worth it in the end. Drive two hundred miles to see people you love for only two days. Visit your neighbors and family and your friends. These people will all be gone someday, or you will, so remember that. See them now.
Give. Give your time. Your money. Your prayers. Yourself. Give your talents. Your hands. Your voice. Give your words. Your determination. Your heart. Give and give and give.
Take chances. Go out on a limb. If you want to kayak for a month, do it. If you want to take pictures of monks in China, do it. If you want to roast your own coffee beans, do it. If you want to get married, do it. If you want to have a baby, do it. Climb out onto that branch, crawl out if you have to, but get out there.
Be alone. Do at least one thing alone in your life. Live alone. Drive across the United States alone. See Paris and Budapest and the Nile river alone. Fly a kite alone. Eat chocolate cake alone. Learn to play the trumpet alone. Invent something amazing alone. See Broadway alone. See the opera alone. Cry alone. Be happy alone. Laugh alone. Be alone. Because being alone is not a sin.
Live. Live like you have fifty years left, or live like you're dying. But however you live, do not just exist. Be here. Be there. Be. And know that your life is beautiful, happiness is a choice, and someone loves you. Read E. E. Cummings and try your darnedest to get what he says about this. Remember that life is a privilege, it is a gift, it is grace. So live.
No comments:
Post a Comment