Posted on 07 Jul, 2011 -
Carpe Diem, Cats and Traffic
Make time while the sun shines
The complex joys of holidays
Life is too short - and too beautiful - to feel we have spent most of it at work or in traffic
Dear Reader,
A friend once told me that holidays can offer a huge amount of pleasure not only in the days spent on holiday themselves but also in all the pleasure of anticipating them - and also in the pleasure you get in remembering the holiday.
Indeed, it is sometimes true that you actually get more pleasure from the anticipation and memory than you do from the days spent too hot on the beach… too miserable in the rain… too burnt or bitten… too irritated or bothered… or stuck in an airport…
But then I can get the same thing with the whole of summer too. Summer itself can seem so much like one long holiday to me that I forget that I have work to do, spend ages over breakfast in the garden… and long to be enjoying myself rather than working - or just lounging in the sun like my cat. I look forward to it for months, remember it when it is gone… and start getting upset that it’s almost over as soon as we hit July.
Yep. I get nostalgic for the joys of summer before it’s even over. My mind even starts thinking about winter uniforms for the kids, coal fires, Christmas baubles and leaves falling from the trees again…
Life is too short to waste a single minute of it being closed off to it or miserable
Which makes me think that summer is too short not to enjoy every moment of it you can…
Life is too short not to lavish yourself with the free time you need just to sit down somewhere quietly and breathe in the colour and joy of the world and feel the pure thrill of existing.
And each day is too beautiful for us not to spend at least some of it taking pleasure in the sights and sounds around us - and in all the good things we are blessed with.
And that, perhaps, is one of the main things a holiday can give you. And also why every week and every day can have a bit of holiday in it - even if you don’t leave your own garden or living room.
As writer and artist, Annie Dillard so wisely told us: ”Spend the afternoon. You can’t take it with you.”
Events scribbled in on the calendar are always closer than they appear - but there are 24 hours in this day today. Or, as my very busy and almost constantly smiling neighbour in China used to say to me:
“Enjoy yourself, Wen Di. It’s later than you think.”
Too busy to enjoy life?
Of course, most of us have to work. Most of us have to spend parts of the day that aren’t too much fun. But life is surely too short to feel that we have spent too much of it in traffic, too much of it wishing we were somewhere other than where we are… too much of it forgetting how wonderful is the world all around us.
Life is too short to waste time worrying about things that will probably never happen. Too short to taint the pleasure of this moment because we are worried we might be too fat or not good enough… or still upset about that incident that happened this morning or last month that’s polluting every minute of our day…
Yes, our minds will continue to try and distract us from the joy of living with all these unnecessary irritations, obsessions and concerns - perhaps because it would be too much to bear to be in thrall to all the beauty for all of the day. Perhaps we might even float up into the air and disappear into the sky if we did not ground ourselves with all this misery.
But as long as we can manage to side-step it for at least some of the day, there is joy enough even in one joyful minute.
Carpe diem has become a bit of a cliché perhaps. But yet we still so often forget to…
Carpe Diem… Seize the day. It has become a cliche now perhaps but we can’t remind ourselves too often.
It is oh too painfully human that so many hours of our day seem to fly away without us barely noticing them. And also so painfully human that we should lament the lack of time in the week and even the lack of life left on this universe:
“I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read and all the friends I want to see.”
John Burroughs
”Use your health, even to the point of wearing it out. That is what it is for. Spend all you have before you die; do not outlive yourself.” George Bernard Shaw
”Life is too short to be little. Man is never so manly as when he feels deeply, acts boldly, and expresses himself with frankness and with fervor.”
Benjamin Disraeli
”Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can.”
Danny Kaye
Best wishes for a fantastic summer!
