I Do My Best Living

A crystal ball.  I need a crystal ball.  

Along with everyone else.  But still.  I want one.  

I want to know what is going to happen, when it is going to happen, and how it is going to happen.  In my core, I'm a planner.  Which translates fluidly to the whole crystal ball idea.  Except, guess what?  I will never, no matter how hard I squeeze my eyes and crinkle my nose and wish, have a crystal ball.  

And I suppose it is better this way.  I'm not meant to know the future and I can't always be in charge.  A plan is not always a necessity.  Let it go.  Let it go.  Let it go.  The chant to remind myself that many of my fondest memories are made from a no plan event.  The random friends gathering on a back deck in the middle of an evening run.  The "just one" glass of wine which turns into an entire girl's night out complete with leaving our heels next to the dance floor to flail like fools.  The sitting on the ottoman at the farm having a heart to heart with my mom and sister while my niece is curled up next to me instead of mowing the lawn...

It's in those no plan sporadic moments that I do my best living.  When I want to squeeze my eyes and crinkle my nose and wish for that crystal ball, that statement needs to be written with a thick sharpie on a hot pink sticky note and smacked to my forehead.  

It's in those no plan sporadic moments that I do my best living.  

Forget about the crystal ball.  What will happen will.  

Now if only it was as easy to put that belief into practice as it is to type the words.  

When my little sister and her friend surprise stopped by my house last Saturday evening before a wedding, I wanted to smush their cute little selves and say, "You have so much ahead of you.  And please don't waste your time worrying.  Just do.  Just live.  Otherwise you are going to end up with forehead wrinkles when you are twenty-eight.  Stay carefree with the world as your oyster.  Because it is.  It really is."  

My cheeks hurt from smiling at their bubbly faces sitting on my couch telling me story after story and being all excited about...well, about everything.  Teenage girls seem to roll like that.  Everything is the biggest deal and the best ever.  Sometimes that mentality can be looked upon as annoying or naive or just you wait until you have real things like paying bills, but I think it's a pretty fabulous way to operate.  Because at the end of the day, sometimes it is the best ever and it is worthy of hands flying dramatics.  Teenage girl style.  

Not crystal ball style.  What will happen will.  Let it go and let it happen.  And it's always a win to have two teenagers do your hair, makeup, and tell you what to wear while one sits on the edge of the tub and the other wields a curling iron as a storytelling aid as they dish about the latest drama of he said she said.  I swear being around those ridiculous girls for a few hours made at least one forehead wrinkle go away.