I Hope You Had the Time of Your Life

Well it's four days into the new year. I have yet to do the cliche blog about resolutions and new beginnings, so let's get this show on the road.

Resolutions have not been on my mind much this time around. But, in my avoidance in finishing my training for work, I have come up with a pretty good one. Let us begin with a story...

A couple of weeks ago, my family noticed we had some visitors, the kind that are furry, eat cheese, and have long tails. Doing the only thing normal individuals would do, my dad set mouse traps. Then one day we were eating and I heard one snap. Then it hit me: We had just killed something. Regardless of the fact it was just a mouse, it still really bothered me. So I made an agreement with my parents. If I could catch a mouse humanely, I could take it and let it go in our big field. And that is exactly what I did.

My dog kept staring at her bowl one night, and upon further investigation, I found the four legged punk was eating my dog's food. This was NOT ok. I took one piece of my dog's dry food, put it on the floor, grabbed the plastic liner out of one of my mom's baskets, and waited. Sure enough that dumb little creature came out for more, and after several failed attempts, I caught it. The rest is history. The mouse was saved by grace, and my mother will forever think of me as her rodent-saving daughter.

Now I am fairly certain you are thinking, what does this have to do with the New Year? Good question. In a possible attempt to get someone to adopt me, my mom told everyone that story. And every one's question: Why? Why would you save a rat? (For the record, it was tiny, meaning it was not a rat, just a baby mouse.)

I have friends who are Marines. I have friends who hunt. I see no problem with participating in those activities. But for some reason I could not do it. EVER. Something was born inside of me, something with a great respect for life, for breathing, experiencing, living. I cannot take that away from anything (with the exception of spiders. I hate those things!)

I have in no way had a boring life, far from it. But I do often find myself jealous of those people with wild tales of adventures they've experienced, even if some of them are a bit far fetched. I am quite a coward, but I admire people like the Crocodile Hunter and the guy from Man vs Wild.

Josh Gracin has a great song titled "I Want To Live." I think it is an accurate representation of how I feel. Check it out.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs0ppEpC5gY

My point is that I have a deep respect for life, because I feel like I'm not properly living it to the fullest. That's my New Year's resolution. To live my life, live like I am dying, live like I have one day to live, whatever cliche you can come up with, I am going to do it.

"Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
-Howard Thurman