Wild Life

I am a pretty careful soul.  I always wear a seatbelt. I use sunscreen.  I don’t put my phone down on the table where there are toddlers drinking beverages.  I wouldn’t say that I am always looking for the potential disaster in a situation but I am not trying to tempt fate.

All of that is not to say that I do not ever live dangerously.  Two days ago I was in a hurry.  I had been to IKEA and it is a billion hours away and I got home and needed to fix dinner and get the kids into bed but I needed to hem the curtains that I had purchased.  Now.  I need to hem that RIGHT NOW.  I also needed an enormous glass of red wine.  Because I had been to IKEA.  With my children.

As I was ironing my new white curtains that were purchased a billion hours from my home and slugging back red wine I thought “I need to do this more often.”  Not iron curtains for damn sure and actually not drink red wine, either.  (January and February are routinely the months of drying out in out house.) I needed to throw caution to the wind.  I needed to live dangerously.  Take a risk.

You might think that drinking red wine while you iron your white curtains is just stupid.  But in that moment it made me feel alive.  Not reckless, just alive.  I set down the glass next to the iron and thought “I just need to believe in myself, man.  Don’t picture the red wine all over the curtains. Just don’t.  Imagine that your curtains will be finished before the kids go to bed, they will be perfectly hemmed and you will be on your second glass of wine in practically no time.”

I believed in myself, guys.

We think about New Year’s resolutions and it can seem daunting. We picture these huge life changes and enormous challenges.  Life doesn’t have to be BIG to be great.  Small changes, moment to moment, that is where the good stuff is.  Believe in yourself. Drink red wine while you iron your curtains. Go to the park instead of the grocery store in the afternoon and believe that you will find something to make a meal from in your refrigerator when you get home.  Wear red lipstick.  Tell that waitress at the diner she has beautiful eyes.  Live dangerously, whatever that looks like to you.  You’ll be glad you did.

Happy New Year, guys.  May you and your family find peace and love in 2015.