words from yack

I came across a blog post from author Mark Yaconelli called “Letter to a Young Graduate”
(read it here: http://tinyurl.com/23fnvl9 ) In it he writes:

“In the 1960s, Abraham Heschel, a Jewish rabbi and holocaust survivor was asked if he had a word for the youth of America, here’s what he said, ‘Live your life like it’s a work of art.’ I like that. So live your life like it’s a novel. Pay attention when you’re getting bored with the main character. Don’t be afraid to walk out on your own movie. When it gets stifling create a new plot line. Quit your job. Leave school. Ask the girl across the hall to elope. Fast for three days in the desert. Try to be a saint. Volunteer to care for meth babies. Learn to tango. In other words, let life loose in you….

Let this be the start of a great work of art. Live something beautiful. Live the life you’ve admired in others. Live the life that you’d be proud to live, because believe me, there’s enough people playing it safe. Go out and try and then fail and try and fail and then forgive yourself (and receive God’s forgiveness) and then try a different angle. Go out in the glacier waters, out in the churning river, out where the middle-aged men sit taunting you to stay back on the shore. Go out into that river and sit and wait and trust and then you’ll see. There’s real strength in you. There’s real hope in you, too. You carry a kind of humor, and compassion and lightness of spirit that can warm even the most frigid of rivers. I’ve seen it. And it makes me feel good to know you’re out there in the world.”

Good stuff. As you can imagine, I have spent lots of time being all retrospective and sentimental thinking about the past… I roll my eyes as I think about the time wasted doing such things. But overall I have very few regrets, and the few I have are mainly because of missed opportunities because I was too afraid (or thickheaded) to jump. However, I feel as if I’ve been playing it a little safe over the past couple of years- not that there’s anything wrong with that- but I think I’m ready for some new adventures. I have a feeling this summer will indeed be adventurous. There’s nothing planned, per say, but I am going to make a consorted effort to be a captain courageous. I used to be a little more free wielding with life, if that makes sense, but I think I’ve grown a bit fuddy duddyish in my old age. Not anymore! I’m going to life live like it’s a work of art and I’m going to walk out on my own movie… that just sounds fun!