for when it rains

at just the right perspective.

for when you forget to be young before you're old:

July 6, 2015

One day when you're sick and old, you'll look back.

You won't remember the days when you were sad and drinking soup, blasting Johnny Cash in your living room.

Your mind will not fixate on that night where you thought your soul was falling through the cracks of a New York side walk. When you were terrified that even if you died, the world would keep spinning, spinning.
You will not wish that you could go back to the days when your mascara was painted on only to wash away like the waves of the pacific over your rosy cheeks.

What you will remember is the day you rode your bike with your best friend riding the handlebars, and you both were laughing so hard that it made no noise, and her hair flew in your eyes from the wind and you could barely see.

You'll love to recall the time you stayed awake until the sun shined through the tree branches at just the right perspective. You asked your mom to drive you to the beach, and the sun kept shining, and you sat in the bench only feet from the river and you'll remember the smell of freedom and the tickle your toes felt when they ran over the sand.

I would not doubt that you would remember how you got the burn on your hand, from being too flimsy while lighting your friend's sparkler during the Fourth of July picnic. It was too dark, the lighter too bright, the fire too hot. Your skin stung, and so did your throat the next day from yelling and yelping and laughing the night before. That was the first night he kissed you and you felt it all the way in your toes, and his smile was like lighter fluid to the flames he created in your heart.

Before you're old and sick, please promise me one thing. Promise that you'll spend your days enjoying the sweet times in the now, before it becomes just a distant memory. Sadness will bring you an odd sort of comfort right now, and you'll forget what it's like to bathe in happiness. This is my reminder of how pain is only wonderful when it comes in the form of cramps from laughing too hard.