I saw a billboard with this phrase today and thought to myself, “Yes. Life is too short to eat boring rice.” It is too short to do a lot of things.
Life is too short for me to wear clothes that don’t fit right just because I already own them. So what? I’ll give them away and then somebody else can own them. Problem solved.
It’s too short for painful shoes. Although, I will wear them to dress up.
Because life is also too short not to dress up sometimes.
Life is too short for me to bother with that little, almost-gone, flat and skinny yet not quite useless piece of soap that is left right before a bar disintegrates. I’m finished with that piece of soap.
Life’s too short to gut out reading a book that isn’t amazing. There are more incredible books in the world than I can read in my lifetime. I’m gonna stick with those.
Life is too short not to wear perfume even when it’s just me and the dishwasher.
Life is too short to say no to something today because of something that might happen tomorrow. That something also might not happen tomorrow. Where will that leave me? Wishing I’d done something different yesterday, that’s where.
Life’s too short to worry about what people think about me. Who am I to think they are thinking anything about me? That’s kind of narcissistic. Instead I’ll assume nobody is thinking anything about me. Then I can do whatever I want. I’ll have way more fun.
Life is too short to eat high-calorie but utterly boring food, like stale cookies from the supermarket. Yes to 400 calorie divine food, like the homemade, glorious brownies that my friend Wally brings to the office pot-luck lunches. No to 400 calorie boring food, like store bought birthday cake with waxy icing.
Unless I feel like eating it that day. Life is too short not to do what I feel like sometimes.
Life is too short for complaining. Fix or accept.
Too short for blame.
Also for grudges.
Too short for agonizing over decisions. I recently had to buy a clock. I went to Target and they didn’t have quite what I wanted. On the spot, I decided that I didn’t need the best clock on the planet. The best one at Target would suffice. So I picked one. The world didn’t end.
Life’s too short for second guessing the past. I made the best choices I could at the time, with the information I had at the time. Sure, I know more now. But, I didn’t then. Short of time travel, there’s no solution I see here other than moving forward. Life is One Way.
Life is too short to play my favorite music at a reasonable volume.
It’s too short to worry about grass stains.
And that billboard was right. It’s way to short to eat boring rice.
Amen, Rachel! I recently invoked the "life is too short" mantra while dancing in the local pharmacy in front of my kids. Who cares? Life is too short not to dance in the pharmacy when they are playing a particularly grooving Beyonce song. (Yes, my pharmacy plays disco. I think the manager is a former club kid.) Love this post. Maggie
ReplyDeleteRead this line the other day. I think it fits:
ReplyDeleteLife may not be the party we hoped for but while we are here we might as well dance.
Rachel, I hope nothing bad happened to make you get such fabulous perspective! I'm thinking you're just a lot wiser than I was in my 30s! :-) But I have to disagree with this one: life is too short to complain. My whines are considered entertainment for my family at this point. If I stopped, it would be like their favorite comedy getting canceled. So I feel it's my duty to complain, for their sake, of course. ;-) This is the kind of blog post that folks should print out and hang on their bulletin boards. Great job!
ReplyDeleteThanks, guys. Susan, I complain a lot too, but the deal is that I usually don't really mean it. I open up my stories with some variant of, "File this one under petty observations..." Or "This one goes under things people do that bug me..." but the difference is that (and I suspect this goes for you, too) I'm not really, truly bothered by the things I complain about. I just like to talk a lot and point out absurdity. It's very gratifying when other people agree. :)
ReplyDeleteSame with you? Or something different?
Rachel--very wonderful and well-written thoughts on life's brevity.
ReplyDeleteYou're so right that whether a person lives to be 5 or 95, life is too short to let any of it go to waste!
Yep, that's what I'm talking about, pretty much. Making light of things that bug us so that we can laugh them off is healthy, I think. If I couldn't do that, I would probably explode. I'm still really working on the not worrying about what other people think of me thing. Getting better every day, almost there...but not quite!
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Susan
Hanging out with positive people helps a lot too. But when it comes to rice, I love it fixed anyway.
ReplyDeleteMarilyn
This was great, funny and brilliant in its simplicity. I will check out you books,
ReplyDeletejust a reader.
Lil, that is very kind of you on all counts. Thank you for stopping by and for posting! And thanks for expressing interest in my mysteries.
ReplyDeleteHappy Memorial Day, everyone. Hug a soldier.