It's Time to Get Loud

                                                                     

"It's a great big world and you'll see

It could pass you by at light speed

You've got one life, one life

Don't stop, live it up."

Since the first time I saw this video by Canadian band Hedley, I haven't been able to get it out of my head. I think it has resonated so strongly with me because this is the conclusion I've come up with after a year of soul-searching introspection.  Not an earth-shaking realization, I know -- but after years of sorrowful events and an illness that left me practically bedridden for twelve months, I have discovered that I want to live it up.

This is an incredibly foreign notion for me. I was raised (and still am) Catholic, and Catholics are notorious for taking their suffering and self-denial very seriously. I did, for the majority of my life. But I have been evolving lately in my idea of life and how I want to live mine. 

I now feel that God has given us this stunningly beautiful world and wants us to appreciate and enjoy  it with a passion. To have fun. To seek happiness. To laugh, to sing, to love, to pray in that way. Our lives are so brief -- falling stars streaking across the universe, burning out in a few seconds -- that I want my joyride across time to be filled with every thrilling, sparkling, exuberant experience I can possibly imagine. 

One life.

Don't let it pass you by.

It's time to get loud.

Now.