YOLO

Like many of you, I once was a child.

A child who loved legos and polly pockets and stuffed animals and named everything she could Crystal. Because Crystal was the name of winners. And of popstars. And of a specific combination of ions, atoms, and molecules. 

Obviously I was a little behind the times.

Obviously.

Not only was I under the impression that Crystal was the coolest name ever, but I also assumed most of my life choices couldn't be harder than picking the perfect name, which fortunately was a one-name-fits-all decision. 

That decision making style doesn't seem fit anymore. Or else I would be going to school in a town called Crystal studying crystalogy, a subcategory of geology (I think).

Because real life expects you to make different and better decisions every day.

Which is awesome because that's part of the miracle of CHANGE. 

And even if you don't make a decision about something, you are in fact still making a decision to not decide and not to act. Sneak attack of a decision hiding in the appearance of a non-decision!

This is tempting to do (not deciding) after you've had an experience where you had all this pent up energy and you figured you just had to go start making some reckless decisions because at least that would get some inertia in your life and then maybe you could better decisions from there.

But then after going crazy you just want to take a little breather and not make some decisions while you reevaluate your old ones but then HOLY COW YOU JUST MADE ANOTHER DECISION RIGHT THEN BY DOING NOTHING AND WHAT THE FREAK THE EFFECTS OF YOUR LAST DECISIONS ARE FADING INTO OBLIVION SO YOU NEED TO ACT FAST IF THOSE DECISIONS WERE INDEED BUILDING BLOCKS BUT OH SHOOT YOU JUST WASTED ANOTHER TWO DAYS DECIDING YOU WERE BAD AT DECIDING SO MAYBE YOU SHOULD THINK SOME MORE BEFORE SAYING OR DOING SOMETHING YOU'LL REGRET AND THEN ALL THE SUDDEN YOUR LIFE IS GONE. 

And you just know in that last moment of indecision that the one good decision you made in life was naming all of your beanie babies Crystal. In fact, nothing has felt so right since then.

Well, that's what you'd think if you believe in The Cautious Life. (#odo #onlydecideonce)

Thankfully our generation has resurrected the old slogan of Carpe Diem and turned it into YOLO. 

As a reminder that life is short and it's time to seize the day.

My life is not full of bad decisions. Stupid ones, yes (like grabbing an electric fence with both hands), but in general, I'm very pleased with how my decisions have affected my life. Because I love the life that I get to live. 

It's full of rainbows and sunshine and unicorns (all named Crystal), which means it also has rain and darkness and vicious river rats (a few of which are named Crystal).

And it's my job to live it. My life, not the river rats.

Because YOLO. Which means not only should we live fully, but we should live bravely, passionately, and hey, maybe sometimes recklessly. But live and decide we must. #falseyodaquote

Because life is the gift God has given us.

"This gift is life -- physical, intellectual, and moral life." (Frederic Bastiat).

And the gift comes with all the wonderful faculties to make decisions. To build and mold our lives through decisions and non-decisions and everything in between.

Go star tipping. Cuddle up. Hike a mountain. Travel the world. Rename some childhood toys.

YOLO. 

Carpe Diem.

It means go get 'em.