Love Urgently, Live Brilliantly

Second son Pat (l), husband Phil, and youngest son Sam (r)  

Today is the beginning of my 70th year. A big deal no matter how you look at it. No matter who's looking.

It's hard to avoid musing on the past and the future. Not in an ordered way, but rather as the musings come to me. I try to avoid the math describing the difference between my current age and the age of my father at his death--96. The likelihood of living beyond him is slim. And the likelihood of living to his age is daunting.

I'm working on a new mantra, though. Maybe "Soak it up." That is, learn all that I can.  Feel the colors.  Taste the wind.  Eat the cheese. Make merry whenever.  And weep with abandon.  

I have read and re-read a piece written by Roger Cohen in the December New York Times that resonates with me even more fiercely today. He wrote, "Death is the shadow that gives shape to existence, urgency to love, brilliance to life."

This is my plan: Love urgently. Live brilliantly.