Hi,

The poet and untamed spirit, Colette once said, “What a wonderful life I’ve had, I only wish I’d realized it sooner.”

That line hits me like a sudden jolt of clarity every time I circle back to it. We’re handed this single, wild, utterly miraculous life, yet how often do we wander through it half-asleep, tangled in distractions, anxieties, or the usual grumbles?

Reading Colette, I pause and adjust my internal compass. GPS: Re-calibrate to wisdom gained from Colette’s regret.

The mind can be a trickster; it can pivot from despair to gratitude faster than I can find my keys just when I remember where I put them. I can stop gnawing on the leg of what’s wrong and instead taste the sweetness that’s been sitting there all along: sunlight on the tabletop, the cat asleep on my lap, pie that somehow tastes like love.

Joy isn’t an indulgence; it’s the lifeline that keeps us upright in a world bent on pulling us over into the muck.

A study of Stoicism reveals it’s more than wearing the same poker face when offered chocolate cake or faced with a bathroom pipe burst. It is also a quiet embrace of impermanence, a principle Buddhism knows well. This awareness sharpens our focus, spotlighting the few things that truly matter, while allowing the trivial to fall away. That’s where meaning and happiness, quietly reside.

One practice I’ve tried, inspired by my Stoic explorations, is imagining I’m already gone, or perhaps never was. I announced this to friends at Thanksgiving and they laughed. I maintained a stoic expression… so to speak, then they thought about it.

Embracing our non-existence is a radical thought, a thought we aren’t wired to hold for long, death denial comes with our factory settings. But in those flurries when I can embrace the thought that I’m supposed to be gone, every breath is an unexpected gift. Every wind-chime tinkle, bird, tree, lunch, friend, loved one, music, art, pillow, bath, pet, holiday, breeze, chocolate covered almond is a bonus. I call it the Colette Effect… actually, I just named it that in this moment. The creative mind!

“You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.” ~Colette

Jill

Wild Abandon Christmas card workshop for Paid Subscribers December 11, noon pacific. All levels from “I can draw a stick figure” to “Stick figures can be art too!”

Link is below tree