Havana Daydreamin'

After working all day

After watching the kids and the neighbor boys swim

After making dinner

That’s when I got to sit on the porch and look at the beautiful day.  And it was beautiful.  Our weather decided to turn just a little cooler.  The temperature was about 85 degrees and a southwesterly breeze was blowing just enough to ruffle my hair.  I was sitting on the porch planks, legs extended, leaning back on my hands.  We have a large wraparound porch and my husband is in the process of painting the railings, so he was standing there with a paintbrush in one hand and a small paint tray in the other.  Our 12 week old baby kittens had decided to join us on the deck and they were taking little cat naps behind one of the sections of railing that had been removed and is now leaning against the house.  (We’re a work in progress.)

As I was sitting on the porch, playing “spotter” in case my husband fell from his precarious perch on a ladder on a second story porch with no railing, a Jimmy Buffet song played from the IPOD connected to our radio.  Jimmy Buffet’s song Havana Daydreamin’ really resonated with me at that moment.  The wind was softly blowing; the grass was green and lush, the pool so clear, the sky so blue.  The closest neighbors live several acres away.  Paradise.

The song Havana Daydreamin’ has this line in it:

 “Havana Daydreamin’… oh he’s just dreamin’…. his life away.” 

This was one of those evenings when I didn’t dream my life away.  As writers we typically live in our imaginations, trying to make our stories come to life.  Some also dream about making it big one day.  We dream about writing the best book ever, finding the dream agent, and becoming a NY Times bestselling author.  It’s a good dream.  An honest dream.  But we need to make sure we don’t dream our lives away.  Don’t write to make it big.  Write because you love the art of writing and have a desire to share your story.  And don’t just dream for yourself.  Have you looked around you today?  Have you recognized how fortunate you are for the people in your life?  Have you realized what a wonderful and miraculous world we live in?  How every action and decision defines our lives and who we are and who we can be?  Did you help someone today?  Don’t dream your life away, choose to LIVE it.  Embrace it.  Enjoy it! 

How have you lived your life today?