This morning Rachel and I had a Skype conversation with her family, and we’re in that life stage when a lot of catching up involves describing various people’s ailments and end of life. I found myself thinking of Mary Oliver’s poem, When Death Comes, the end of which just so happened to be in my TimeHop today.
When Death Comes
When it’s over, I want to say all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.
-Mary Oliver
My default setting is homebody, but with all this in mind, I decided to go along with Rachel to our friend’s apartment to watch them get ready for a charity drag performance this weekend. We ate brunch, and then I filmed and cheered them on as they practiced a delightfully absurd rendition of Bonnie Tyler’s “I Need a Hero.”
I don’t mind being a homebody, and I think a life lived in books and pajama bottoms is just as valid as any other. But sometimes I need a reminder that getting out and being with people has a charm of its own. Participating in this world, not just visiting it, means saying yes. Yes to silliness, yes to friends, and afterwards, yes to reading in bed surrounded by cats.
It Is Trish 