What Are You Waiting For?

October is my birthday month. This year, I turn 55. 🎂🎈

I love birthdays – mine and other people’s – and I’ve been excited to plan, dream, and celebrate.

Until recently, when one of my dearest friends died. Suddenly, things feel very different. 💔🕊️

Samantha was the most spontaneous, fun-loving, adventurous person I’ve ever met. 🌟 She embraced life in a way that made you want to embrace it too. 🫂 She filled every room with her vibrant spirit and even with the distance between us, we remained friends for decades. 👭💫

Life as I knew it has stopped.

How do you say goodbye to someone you’ve loved for more than 40 years? Someone who was fun-loving, kindhearted, spontaneous, and had an astounding zest for life?

You don’t. You can’t. Instead, you carry pieces of them with you. You honor them by paying attention and allowing their life to change the way you live yours. 🌱✨

Because here’s the thing – We act like we have time, like we can wait for when things settle down. But the truth is, things never settle down… until they do and often it’s too late.

So now, standing at the edge of 55, I’m thinking less about the number of years I’ve lived and more about how I want to live the years I still have.

I’m not waiting anymore. 🚫⏳

Hard Truth💥

Losing someone you love has a brutal way of cutting through the boredom, the burdens, and the bullshit.

If you let it, it will bring you face to face with some hard truths and equally hard questions.

What really matters?
Who really matters?
What are you tolerating that is costing you precious pieces of your life?
What are you putting off?
Where are you waiting, playing small, over-functioning, pleasing, or performing instead of actually participating in your own life?
What would you do differently if you stopped living your life from the sidelines?
What are you waiting for?

Those aren’t hypothetical questions for me anymore. 🎯

55 Years In 🗓️

One of the biggest lessons I’m carrying into 55 is this:💡

Life doesn’t wait for anyone. No one comes through it unscathed either.

We all experience pain, loss, and heartache and if you’re really living, your doses of these will probably be higher than most. I feel that with Sam’s absence. 💔😢

A successful life isn’t one based solely on your wallet or accomplishments, nor bad habits of exhaustion, over-functioning, people-pleasing, waiting, or over-thinking.

A really successful life is built with openness, curiosity, playfulness, and willingness to get in the game – even if you lose.

A really successful life is based on the people you love, the relationships you nurture, the experiences you embrace, and the things that make you excited to get out of bed. 💖

I don’t want to wait. I don’t want to be so busy managing life that I forget to experience it.
I don’t want to postpone living. I want to be here – awake, alert, and alive!
I don’t want to save joy for when everything is done.

Because everything is never done… until it is. ⏰🛑

While We’re Still Here 🕊️💫

So I’ve solidified my plans for October. I’m celebrating the life and memory of my friend and then I will travel. 🙌

For the month of October- and every day I get to be here – I want to be present to life.

I’ve updated my bucket list and written so many things down I’ve had to use the edges of the pages. I will say yes and no more deliberately.

I will seize every moment possible in honor and memory of my dear friend.
I will feel the pain and joy of it all.
I will feel the sharp edges of both loving her and losing her – because that is the cost of living.

Most importantly, I want to challenge myself—and you too —to stop waiting.

Start dreaming. Start planning. Take action. No matter how big or how small, seize what is possible!

You have a responsibility to yourself and the life you’ve been granted.

Create your own rules and guidelines to really start living 🙌 😊

Make the call.
Get in the picture.
Say the thing out loud.
Forgive when it’s right.
Leave when it’s right.
Rest when you need to.
Wear the dress.
Stop nursing the grudge.
Look someone in the eyes.
Put your phone down.
Ask the question.
Make the statement.
Open your mind and your heart.
Take the trip.
Try something new.
Tell people you love them.
Let yourself be seen.
Stop negotiating on the things that matter to you.
Laugh loudly.
Love generously.
Do the thing you’ve been waiting to do.

And ask yourself: Am I really living my life? 🤔❓

This October, I’m choosing to live life. All 55 years of it.

And Samantha, I’ll carry your zest for life with me in every moment. ❤️

Here’s to being alive. And here’s to really living. 🥂 🥳

And if you don’t know, I’m so grateful our paths have crossed. 🤗 🌟

What about you? What is one thing you’ve been putting off that your soul is asking for right now?

If you feel moved to share, simply hit reply to this email. I read every single response, and I’d love to hear what you’re choosing to step into this month. 🤍

“To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.”