“Pluck the day, trusting as little as possible in the next one”
So it’s not “Carpe Diem” seize the day is it? It’s so much more than that and means so much more to us at our time of life. Think about it. What do you want to do but are putting off till tomorrow? And I said “want” to do, not “have” to do or “should” do or “need” to do.
Want to do.
Travel the World
Jump out of a plane
Skinny dip
See the Arctic
Ride a motorbike
Buy a Ferrari
Run a marathon
Buy a pair of running shoes
Go for a swim in cold water
Help people less fortunate than you
You finish it off, I’d love to know.
Some people call this the bucket list. Things to do before I kick the bucket (die)
As the translation goes, don’t trust the next day. It can’t be trusted. It might never come. I’d love this blog to be full of stories of people who were nudged into plucking the day and put their stories on here for all to see. We all know people who passed too early, then we come home and say to ourselves ” right, that’s a sign, life’s too short”. And then we do nothing about it because;
It’s not the right time
We can’t afford it
What about the dog/cat/grand kids/goldfish?
Feel free to add your own excuses
My mum was a fantastic mum. She brought up four children, was a carer for her own mum, cared for my own daughter, cared for her own husband when he had cancer, even though he had been an abusive husband and father, she even had a job as a carer. She never travelled to another country or even went on a plane. And yet her house was my favourite place in the world. It was the place that was always full of laughter and she would be at the centre of it, even if she didn’t know it. If you’d been looking on at our start in life it would have been easy to assume we could have easily fallen foul of the law, struggled to make ends meet, been poorly educated and that steady employment would have amounted to success for us. Not so. Mum realised her ambitions through us, encouraged us, fought for us and we have all done well in life. Her health deteriorated too soon, in hindsight due to her poor lifestyle and she eventually developed cancer and left us. As her health deteriorated she became less able to look after herself and eventually failed to recover from a fall.. My daughter helped care for her at home when she could to save her the embarrassment of being cared for by her “boys”. Recently, my daughter and I were out for lunch and she told me this;
“One time, when we had to call the ambulance for Nan because…. When she was going in the ambulance she said to me “I’ve never had a life, all I’ve done is care for other people”.
Most memories of my mum make me laugh or smile but this one always makes me wonder if we made it all worthwhile for her.
Carpe Diem quam minimum credula postero.