dear life, please give me a break.

Why does it take a downslide, falling down and rolling around in the dirt for awhile and then picking ourselves back up, dusting off the scars and brushing away the black and blue, to realize that the world is so beautiful? Next time you find yourself with some freetime in the middle of autumn, don’t waste it. Go take an afternoon stroll and forget the iPod or the kids or the dog or the boyfriend at home, and just walk. Look. Explore, live, appreciate. Soak it up. Life finds a way to whoosh past us before our eyes and we never really know where it goes until we stop and take a breath. School, work, chores, change the oil spank the brats “do my laundry!” whip up dinner wash the floor pay the bills don’t be late close the door feed the pups pick up milk fill the prescription wish your niece happy birthday call your boss runrunrunrunrun WHEN’S IT GONNA STOP? When are we permitted a break from life without earning ourselves a self-assumed guilt trip just because we’re not on the go? If not now, when? Get away, run away, find your escape route and put it to good use. Because when you finally let go and stop letting your agenda run your life, you begin to run your own show; it’ll start bowing down to you and not vice versa. Get your priorities straight. Get your hustle on. Get up and take action when it’s come, and let loose when it’s time. Stop caring, not about the world but about every little detail in your day. It will not matter tomorrow, nor the day after or the day after that.

Stop. Breathe. Laugh.


Sometimes this feeling comes over me like there’s not enough time for everything I want to do, the timer’s gonna run straight to the ground and life’s gonna disappear while I’m still busy thinking about who I wanna be or what I wanna be doing with it, and I just get really anxious and scared and start pacing. Who said life was supposed to be a race, stay breathless and timed to the finish line?

And then sometimes I look around and get overwhelmed by all the beauty I see. I cannot fathom how the world is made up of this much beautiful, of this much wonderful and happiness and opportunity and carelessness. It’s so damn beautiful, and my feet pick me up and start booking it through this meadow of deep aggressive green and yellow and white daisies, a blue sky running on forever accenting the horizon, and I just can’t stop. We‘re gonna have our bad days and we‘re gonna be faced with trials. The tears are gonna run and, you know, the world will not always be on our side and lend us a hand to grab and squeeze, “but it's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once and it's too much. My heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst and then I remember to relax and stop trying to hold on to it and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life. You probably have no idea what I'm talking about, but don't worry, you will someday.” It’s worth it, I promise you this. Next time the stars are out and you have a minute to spare, step outside in the freezing winter cold and just free your heart for a moment in time. Don’t lose sight of who you are and why you’re here because I make that mistake on average of about 7x a week, and, when we reserve a mere five minutes to ourselves each and every day, it’s the simplest thing to do. But when we get to that point where we realize we’ve lost ourselves and don’t know how to clear the road in finding our way back to where we started, where are we supposed to run to? When we don’t know who we are anymore and we find ourselves facing a dark tunnel that continues for miles, what else matters? Stare up at the black screen and focus the bigger picture into perspective. Don’t let the world swallow you up whole without one hell of a battle. Don’t let the arguments lead to destruction, don’t let society tell you who you are, don’t feed the fire, and don’t let that spark go out; do not lose sight and never stop loving. It’s worth it, it’s always worth it if you continue the fight and live your heart out until the final breath.