“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
-- The Summer Day, Mary Oliver
I woke up yesterday morning to the headline that the Arrowmont Arts and Crafts School had been destroyed overnight in the Gatlinburg, TN wildfires. One of the first thoughts to cross my mind was I've always wanted to take a workshop there but kept putting it off for one reason or another. And now it was gone. An opportunity lost.
Fortunately the headline was wrong and Arrowmont survived with only the loss of two dormitories. But I’ve been haunted since by the thoughts of how many opportunities I’ve let pass me by and how much I’ve missed out on in my life because I’ve always put work and someone else’s needs first.
As I’m planning for 2017, I'm setting new priorities. No more putting things off because “there’s always tomorrow, next week, next month, next year”. There will never be the “perfect time”. And someday may never come.
So, what about you? What's that one thing you keep putting off for "later"? Is it important enough to you to put everything else aside and make it happen in 2017?