YOLO—Do You Really Only Live Once?

The other day my friend said to me: you have always been the first in our friend circle—the first to get married, buy a home; the first to have kids; the first to get divorced; the first to get remarried and now the first to move away—away from the city I have called home for the last 41 years. Why do you always have to be first? My first thought before I spoke (believe it or not) was I’m an Aries, that’s just what we do, we do—then think. We don’t spend years planning to perhaps never make our plans come to fruition. We don’t engage in “paralysis by analysis”, in life there simply isn’t time. But, maybe there is a much more profound reason, maybe?

In our silence, my brain circuits started to search for a time where perhaps I wasn’t all impulse. Did I stop to think beyond YOLO? I looked at my friend and knew what was really going on. It was change, yet another change. We had both endured so much change in life in a relatively short period of time. Some people shy away from change—I was never one of those people; good, bad, right, wrong or indifferent. The only constant in life is change. Maybe I was born with that innate sense long before I ever knew of the concept. There has always been an urgency in my life, like the sands were pouring through the hourglass. Do it now, before you run out of sand and thus life. There are flaws in that way of living however. A time to plan to get your ducks in a row is absent in the face of now or never. That is a constant work in progress for me.

So I started to delve deeper into my subconscious. Yes, all this contemplation was happening while sitting there just looking at my friend. And it always comes back to this one moment in time. I can’t tell you what my motivation was before this moment when I acted on the do it now mentality but I can tell you from this one moment in time on this is the future catalyst for whatever do it nows come my way.

I had her head cradled in my lap, my hand on her beating heart. I kept whispering, go home legal alien (our private joke), I’ll be ok, I promise you. It is the biggest lie that has ever come out of my mouth, a complete untruth! I didn’t want her to go home, not that day, not ever. And I have never been “ok” again since. Then her heart beat for the last time, her eyes opened and there was a smile on her face, one I had not seen in months. My legal alien, my Mother, went home. Her sand had ran out at 69 years.

YOLO—Do you really only live once? Just in case you do—make that move, find a new job, love yourself enough to wait—yes I said it—wait for the love of your life that brings you peace, joy and passion. LOVE and then tell the people how much you love them-each and everyday. Live each moment like the sands in the hourglass are going to run out because someday it will.

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Kimberly

Author; Blogger; Self-Proclaimed “Woman” of all trades and Self-Proclaimed “Master” of some! AFAA Certified Group Aerobics Instructor since 1998; MA Licensed Real Estate Agent since 1995; former Certified Financial Counselor and Passionate Advocator of Financial Education for Women. Tech Geek; Home Cook & Most Importantly, Mother of 3, my #1 Reason for Living!!!