A Joyous Perspective on Assuring Your Life Flash is Worth Watching: Get to it.

This week at the Friday Night Thought Tale Hour with the Henderson's, it occurred to me that the first month of the year is coming to a close. In typical fashion, it feels like it zipped by. But it was a full month. It was also filled with more surprising human celebrity deaths than I can recall in a while and I have found myself thinking more about a reality that no one likes to consider. I haven't thought about it this much since the early years after I lost my oldest son. A loss that’s shocking always resets your perspective.

My life will end too soon.

Not imminently. But soon. Even sixty is too soon, isn't

it? Seventy, eighty, ninety, still soon. I’m going to die. Even if it’s what we humans consider a long life, it’s short in comparison to a Giant Sequoia. Life is fleeting; it’s brief. But I didn't allow these thoughts to throw me down a dark rabbit hole. See, I've learned a lot from the shocking loss, and I decided I would share with you this week how the finality of life's finish line has caused me to value the path even more.  Because in the face of life ending too soon, and not knowing what comes next, I realize that I know what can come next. I can put together what I want. I can face things boldly. You can too.

And age has absolutely nothing to do with it.

You might be reading this at 75 years old and smiling at how this 56-year-old is so fortunate to have the vim and vigor to take life by the horns. Snap out of it, because I'm talking to you too. You don't know that you don't have 20 years left here. Hell, you could have more time that me. Do not think that somehow you've earned a pass on making the most of every minute you have here. Funny isn't it, how our age changes our perspective? I imagine that future me will look back on present me very much the way present me looks back on younger me. I shake my head sometimes at younger me for her insecurities and hesitation and fear. I want to tell her it’s all going to go by so fast, so enjoy it now.

Enjoy it now.

Spending time with
the Grandkids

“One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it’s worth watching.” ~Unknown

Right now is the time when future me may look back and wonder what on earth I was so worried about. Career, health, family....

I’m only fifty-six. Fifty-six!  
Seventy-year-old me would love to be fifty-six!

And eighty-one-year-old me would exceedingly wish she was fifty-six.

My heavens. I’m so lucky to be fifty-six. (insert your age here. See what I mean?)

I look back on 30-year old me, and I want to shake her. What was I doing wasting time on insecurity? Why did I freeze and gravitate toward inaction

30-year old me.

sometimes? Every moment that I was unsure, worried, fretting, concerned about how I was doing, or wondering if I had I made the right choices, and should I worry what that person thinks, was a waste of precious time. It’s like fourteen-year-old me thinking she was fat. She wasn’t.

Are you hesitant about a fork in the road? Feeling anxious about your options (or lack thereof)? Feel old? Regret something? I can’t tell you what will fix it, but I can share three things that have always given me the motivation to move forward and get busy living. I call them my Trump Cards. (What?)

Visit a cemetery.

It seems strange and eerie.  It isn’t. A cemetery has a fantastic way of reminding you to live your life. Fear of whatever choices you have ahead, or any paralysis of action you may be experiencing, will melt in the presence of beautifully landscaped permanent resting places. My frequent visits to my son's grave used to leave me spent. Now when I leave, I am more determined than ever to live my life to the fullest.
Truth trumps excuses.

Imagine the young you.

18-year old me.

Remember the school dance you were too scared to go to? Or the crossroads between starting your career or traveling after graduation? How about the girl you never asked out, or the boy you never told off for hurting you.
Young you was trepidatious about a few things, and occasions you wouldn’t hesitate to rise to now. So should the older you appreciate you finding the courage to drop the worries that are holding you both back today.
Experience trumps fear.

Imagine the worst that can happen.

Got a scary thing you want to do? Think of the worst that could happen, and weigh it against how much you’d regret not trying. Or if you’re not sure what to do at all, consider the consequences of trying something versus doing nothing. Do something. Embrace the fact that you are a living and breathing human. Failure and success are both part of a full life.
Movement trumps regret.

Time to end your prohibition.

So tonight, we are drinking a vintage cocktail called "The Twelve Mile Limit." It was created to poke fun at some of the sillier laws from Prohibition. We will be toasting to breaking the self-created laws that keep us from the answer to this question: What would you be upset about most if the Grim Reaper showed up and said you've got five minutes?

Me at 80-years old?

Why wait?

Get to it. CHEERS, FRIENDS!**


The Twelve Mile Limit Cocktail

• 1-ounce white rum
• 1/2 ounce rye whiskey
• 1/2 ounce brandy
• 1/2 ounce grenadine
• 1/2 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice, from 1 lemon
• Garnish: lemon twist

Add rum, rye, brandy, grenadine, and lemon juice to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake until well chilled. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist and serve.

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