On Life and Living

...Because death and dying is much too morose and negative for the following post.

I attended a memorial today for a family friend who recently died in a car crash. She was young and her death was, as car crashes have a habit of being, a sudden shock and of course very sad for everyone who knew her. I did not know her especially well, and I am a few years younger than she was (these tense changes are confusing), but our families sometimes visited and so I did spend some time with her.

Her memorial service reminded me of what's really important in life: love and being in the moment.

You can think that's corny, but if you do you're an asshole (ha, wow, what an un-loving sentence this is). Really though, that's all we have, no matter how you slice it. Some Coldplay came on my shuffle as I was driving home tonight and the lyrics got right into my brain: yeah, we do all have someone to lean on and yeah, we really do live in a beautiful world. Sure, it's totally fucked up, but it's totally beautiful too. So why not do all we can to appreciate that? And why not honour our incredible ability to care for other people?

Why, since life is so short, do we put off things that are, in the end, so important? Things pile up and get in the way of friendships and family, but awful accidental tragic terrible things happen to remind us to wake up and re-evaluate how we value (or do not value) the people in our lives. What if you're not alive tomorrow? What if I'm not? I don't want to be one of those silly idiots who goes out and gets Carpe Diem tattooed on her lower back (how perfect of a tramp stamp would that be?!), but this horrific loss of life has changed my mind to believe that this is really the only way to lead a full, happy, honest, carefree life.

Why not strive to do your best? Why not smile? Why not start conversations with strangers? Why not keep in touch with your brother? Why not look people in the eye and tell them why you will or will not ___? So many people ask why they should do something. Well, really, why not?

Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. -Rumi