Carpe Diem

It is amazing the things which can get our heart racing and our blood pumping. Even something as simple as going on a new roller-coaster for the first time can have that effect. The slight trickle of fear, the buzz of anticipation and the sense of the unknown. They are the moments that make life what it is.

These are those fleeting seconds that have the potential to take our breath away but they are often lost in the humdrum drone of day-to-day existence. Why? And when we do encounter them and try to embrace them, do we truly understand how fortunate we are to be able to experience them?

When you stop to think about it, life itself is a miracle. The set of circumstances required to put us here and now is so staggeringly improbable that even Hollywood would describe it as a "bit far-fetched". Life is often described as a journey, not a destination, but do we honestly realise how fleeting a journey it might be? And why do we seem content to make our way "safely" through the journey to a destination that frankly I am in no hurry to get to? Can we honestly say we do justice to what we have? I know I have been as guilty as anyone in the past, and maybe I still am. Maybe I'm just kidding myself, it has often been mentioned that I talk a lot!!

But what is it that stops us from truly seizing the day, what holds us back? These moments that take your breath away, even for a second, should be embraced and grabbed onto with as many limbs as you can manage. Yet we often seem content to merely let them pass us by, afraid to grab on and shake every moment of happiness, exhilaration and joy out of them. We underplay them, we allow them to be overwhelmed by moments of frustration and anxiety.

Yes it might only be a simple roller-coaster with less than 2 minutes of varying emotions and feelings followed by a hope that your stomach rejoins you. But they are strong feelings, powerful emotions - these are the moments that are recalled when minds are allowed to wander. These moments are the ones that have tales told and songs sung about them. The intense moments, the powerful moments, the sensations of truly feeling alive are what matters.

Even those experiences that hurt so so deeply, those that feel like they will never stop aching - they should still be embraced for what they are. Yes they hurt, but that only shows that they matter, that they are important lessons and seminal experiences.

They are the moments that define our lives, they are the moments that elevate our senses and our feelings and they are the moments we (should) live for. We should look for these moments whenever possible; the ones that take your breath away and pull at your insides, for better and for worse.

Because what is the alternative? What is to be gained by not living for the moment, what can be achieved by safely navigating through this journey? We will all end up at the same destination eventually, why not take the bumpy route along the way?

Everyone's life is a story just waiting to be written, and tomorrow seems as good a time as any to get that first page done if you haven't yet. So search out those moments, embrace them when they come and make sure you live every second of them, the good and the bad.

To thoroughly overdo the latin;
Tempus fugit. Carpe diem cum poteris

Till next time,
DT