[rewind] Drink Your Wine

I wrote the excerpt below in the spring of 2009. I recently uncovered a forgotten blog, and this piece was one work that stood out. It is now four years later and I still have these philosophical convictions about life, my life, and where it's going. For an extrovert, I am pretty closed off when it comes to dealing with my own emotions and the stressors in my life. For whatever reason, I find the easiest course of action against defeat is solitude. I think that it is easier to self-destruct and push your emotions to the extreme than it is to take pause and really reflect on your demons. But read, and develop your own opinions.

Breath taking moments, require no introduction. 
A leap of faith sends chills down the spine of an irresponsible lover. Momentary lapses in judgment have left this heart brash. Immobile. And fierce. 

Irony should be drunk like wine; appreciate the crisp bite as it transcends through your being and casts a thick fog of doubt over your beautifully correlated plan. Life is a plan, whether you choose to acknowledge the itinerary or not. Each moment breaks into the next – strung like beads: ornate. Unique. But patterned together for a larger purpose. Building blocks of the future, so cliché and generic that these moments slip into minutes, and hours that consume years. This future draws rapidly and leaves in a blink, dusting memories in its wake. Life is measured in discovery, anniversaries, and achievement. It is the girth between beads and the substance of our purpose. As young adults, we plot success. The world waits, bated, at our fingertips. Our minds are full of ideas; innovation inspires confidence, and a ‘can-do’ attitude that fuels this ego and pushes the belief that we can conquer the world. And we do. The top of the mountain blazes, and draws to it an army of creative minds. The early years fly, and the victory found in achievement creates frenzy. Having tasted the brevity of success, we feel exalted and push forward. Drive and ambition are powerful traits of a person's character, they define an individuals ideals and create a divide between those that DO, and those that DO NOT. Face it, we're not all crafted for victory. 'The road less traveled', so to speak, rears greater reward. But the journey is perilous and not all are crazy enough for the challenge. So these peers find comfort in their lack of ambition and fall into a monotonous wasteland. For them, it is easier to live in chaos than it is to try and tame it - they settle. This portrayal of the comrade and the fallen is evident in every generation. 

This journey consumes a lifetime - and in a breath, we stop. We measure our gains in losses and achievement; our life has been threaded together in beads and bracelets. The moments of the inbetween, at the time, seemed so tedious and penniless. But upon recollection, those moments come to life and curve the lips upwards into that small, private smile. To appreciate life, or to understand success, we must overcome regret and pay acknowledgement to the smaller details. Insert irony here. Years spent focused on the prize end in nostalgia, and recollection of life's more minute bringings. Drink your irony, and embrace its pithy. Paint your portrait in shades of vibrance; this is your life, Live It.