So. I wrote a blog post, including what I thought was a very humorous anecdote about washing dishes and a revelation I had as I was scrubbing off caked-on remains that wouldn’t budge from my blue bowl. The post was super deep and here’s the gist of it:

OMG, I was doing dishes. Most were easy, I just tossed them into the dishwasher after I gave them a quick rinse. Ooh, until I came across that one. You know that one. The bowl with baked on leftovers that won’t come off. And I just kept scrubbing … until I had an epiphany about how sometimes we find ourselves in situations where we just have to give up … stop working so hard and just let things (wait for it) SOAK.
…

At least that’s what I was writing when I glanced up at the television and saw breaking news that Kobe Bryant had been killed in a helicopter crash. I forgot all about my life-and-dishes analogy and, like most of America, mourned a celebrity athlete that I never knew. Because he was young. Because his daughter was with him. Because, I guessed, he had more life to live and his story seemed unfinished. (btw, don’t confuse this statement as an endorsement of behavior.)

Since then, I’ve thought less about dishes and more about how short life is. There’s no guarantee we’ll have time to do all the things we say we want to. Like a couple months back when I woke up to learn that an old high school acquaintance drowned during a fishing trip. My guess is he had unfinished business on his bucket list. We probably do too.

And so, instead of blabbing on about how some seasons of life require patience … and we need to be content to soak for a bit in the sink, I’m going to suggest we get more aggressive in our living. Less waiting around for opportunities to unfold before us and more MMA-style determination to chase life.

I'll leave you with these fine words by my main squeeze, Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Write it on your heart
that every day is the best day in the year.

He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day
who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety. 

Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.

Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in.

Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit
to be cumbered with your old nonsense. 

This new day is too dear,
with its hopes and invitations,
to waste a moment on the yesterdays.

Live all in,
Janel