You Only Live Once

When I was twelve years old, walking down the hallway of my junior high school, I saw a poster that someone had taped to the wall between two of the classrooms. It was a beautiful photo of the silhouette of a person diving gracefully off of a cliff into the sun-dappled ocean below. The caption read "You only live once, but if you live right, once is enough."

Obviously it made an impression, as I can still recall it in exact detail decades later. So, as corny as it sounds, I got my life's motto from a poster on a wall. But I do actually quote it all the time. In my late teens and early twenties, it was my daily mantra as I woke each morning determined to go out and make my mark on the world. It was responsible for most of the truly reckless decisions I made in my youth. But it was also responsible for most of the more amazing actions I've undertaken in my life. And the older I get, it reminds me to slow down every once in a while, and take time out to do something just for the fun of it, just for me.

It doesn't have to be anything crazy, like say following the sudden childish impulse to kick off your pumps in the middle of the mall and go wading in the fountain for just a moment. (But it was really a hoot watching the astonished faces of passers-by.) It could be just a whim - something spur-of-the-moment like turning around to go back to the Dairy Queen for some ice cream on the way home from running all those errands. Or deciding that the huge blanket fort that the kids are building in the dining room is just so much more fun and will be much more memorable than the china and antique furniture that is in imminent danger from little hands and pillow fights. I can always buy more china - and the antiques were already scratched when I got 'em.

So much more precious than the material accumulation, is the life - the memories, the laughter and even the tears that define who we are, who we were, and who we want to be in the future.

I can't say that I remember that every day. But I try to remember it as often as I can. So that usually, when given a choice between spending a Saturday running errands or spending a Saturday driving through the moutains, finding a trail and striking off to see where it goes for a few hours.....well, the grocery shopping can always wait 'til tomorrow.

I try hard not to think of it as being irresponsible or immature. It's just that I really want to be that smiling, batty old woman some day, cackling away as I tell my grandchildren about some of my more infamous exploits. I always want to be able to look back on my life - as I do now - knowing that I wouldn't change much, even if I could. Knowing that there were those times when I chose the less-travelled path, the riskier route and did those spontaneous things...not because I could, but because I felt like I should. If we do only get to go around once, I'm gonna make damn sure that I had a hell of a good time.

So raise your glass in solidarity. Go directly outside in bare feet and scrunch through the fallen leaves and chilly dew of October. Run around the yard, dance through the trees, sing in the rain, and don't give a thought to who may be watching or judging. Where will those judgements be at the end of your life? Will it really matter what anybody else thought of you?

For me, it'll come down to my family and closest friends - they're the only judges that truly matter to me. And I don't have any family or close friends who don't already accept me for the warped individual that I am.

So what are you going to do just for yourself today? After all, you only live once. But if you live right, once just may be enough.