Hit The Ground Running

Here's a tip for living from Mary:

Live your life in such a way that when your feet hit the floor in the morning, Satan shudders and says, "Oh shit, she's awake!

The message for me in this quote is one of exuberance, zest, pizazz. I just found that same message in the script for Enchanted April, a play our community theater is considering for next season. Set in post WWI England, two married women feel overwhelmed by loss and and the inexorable march of time that has cast a pall--like the incessant rain--over their lives and decide to rent a castle in Italy for a holiday. Renewal and enchantment follow after the perspective that comes from taking a step back from our lives and taking stock of where we are and where we might be going.

Vacations, retreats, marooned on a plane or in a car--these are good times to let the change in routine work its magic as the pattern that ties us to the form of ourselves is disrupted and therefore more easily examined. Like sorting through our summer clothes and coming across those denim shorts we thought so perfect last season just might be better on younger legs, the choices we made for our life might no longer fit quite so well. Perspective is hard to come by when we keep our nose to the grindstone.

So, give yourself a mini-retreat and figure out what you might do to add a little zest to your life. What can you do to let the devil hear you coming?