Note to Self

Each year, at the end of summer, I say to myself: I didn’t go to the beach enough, didn’t see enough sunsets, didn’t walk the Ponquogue Bridge often enough, didn’t go to Tiki Joe’s at Meschutt Beach and listen to music enough, didn’t have coffee and donuts at Ponquogue Pavilion enough, didn’t sit outside and sip coffee and read a book enough. Each year I say next year I will . . . I will . . . I will. . . . And yet the summer slips through my fingers like a handful of sand. I want to slow it all down and savor it. I want to be in the moment . . . to grasp my regrets before they become regrets.

“Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’ into the future.” –Steve Miller, “Fly Like an Eagle”

Perhaps I should write a note to myself–an admonition–and put it in my June tickler file. DO NOT SQUANDER THE SUMMER. Do not sit in the house on a sunny day. Do not wake up slowly–throw on your clothes, grab a beach chair, and go. Just go. Walk the beach, gather shells, get lost in the ebb and flow of the waves, listen to the music, watch the sunset. Just do it. Just say yes. LIVE!

by Lynn DiGiacomo