Seize the day. That’s what we’re supposed to do when opportunities present themselves. Carpe diem and all that.
But sometimes, the opportunity is ill-timed.
A reporter wants you to appear on camera… and you’re nursing the flu and fighting laryngitis, you’ve gained weight and you know what the lens will add, three frogs are caucusing in your raspy throat, and still you know you have to say yes.
Because when opportunity knocks…
Exactly.
A client calls. It’s been awhile. Your back is a mess, your calendar is jammed, you’ve just begun your “own” project for the fourth consecutive time in six months. Shall we add the drive, the weather, the time it will take to review and prep? But a client is a client is a client, and you may not have the client tomorrow so… naturally, you say yes. And with a smile and pep in your step because… you’re seizing the day! (It’s just a different sort of day.)
Right. Life is short, Sport. Don’t wait, Ingrate. Enjoy the present… be pleasant.
CARPE DIEM, I say!
But all this stepping, grabbing, taking, exploiting — and I mean exploiting in the best possible way — let’s be real. It’s a deal and a steal and too often, a hamster wheel. It feeds on time, energy, enthusiasm. And what of the chasm between open hours in your calendar and 480 minutes allotted for zzzzs? Shall we tease ourselves with the thought of a wild and spontaneous ride? And what of the inclination toward preparation? What if your seizing means squeezing experiences into a crowded little slot?
As I jot myself notes as to what awaits on my table, may I admit to feeling rocky, shocky and unstable?
There are taxes to ready… I’m feeling unsteady.
There’s FAFSA for the college son… Will those damn forms ever be done?
There are bills and lists, no thrills, no trysts, yet the pull to seizing is not wholly displeasing or wouldn’t be, if I could see an hour for a shower and counting sheep to fall asleep!
Perhaps the problem is the way I approach my seizures, so to speak. Might I tweak their implementation? Might I rev the reserves with a staycation? Might I preserve the pleasure of carping without harping if I’m able to insert a tiny taste of midday leisure?
If only, if only, if only it would be so, that we could manage a show of living for the moment whilst also retaining our capacity for calm. Is it possible to keep calm and seize the day, and view our adventures and endeavors as play?
Carpe diem is a swell saying, a marvel of a mantra, a rousing reminder that life’s moments are precious. We should live them as aware and fully as possible — certainly the good — would that we could do so without scrambling priorities, mucking with dependencies, and know that tendencies to seize the day (when it’s play) can be carried to an undesirable extreme.
Still, shall we all take a minute to toy with the concept of “enjoy?”
I’ll tell you tomorrow.
Right now, I need to seize the day.
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Before my son Nick could drive himself to high school, I dropped him off on my way to work each day enlivening his spirit with the confident phrase “Carpe Diem” as he headed up to the school’s front doors.
Two years later when he finally passed his drivers test and was able to drive himself to school, I asked him if he missed hearing that daily missive from me, “Carpe Diem”
He paused and said no- “I really don’t know what that means”
Nice joyfully ironic writing, D. Hope you are well!
Lovely to hear from you, Cecilia! And your self-portraits are fabulous. Witty, smart, real.