What makes you get up in the morning?
Hey life renegades,
Life can seem like an endless slog or a magical love affair. It depends on your ability to answer the question, “What makes you get up in the morning?”
During my childhood, I couldn’t get enough of life. I raced out of bed to explore the natural landscape near my home. I scaled the face of Bald Rock (o.k. a small hill a few roads over), I climbed pine trees, I waded in brooks, I watched butterflies, I taught riding lessons in my back yards without the aid of actual horses.
That love disappeared when society shoved me onto the tracks headed toward conventional adulthood. By my late twenties, I kept asking, “Is this all there is?” I’d broken up with life. We’d gone our separate ways. I had no real reason to get up in the morning. I guess I had stumbled onto some kind of career track. Yet, the notion of a generic career never appealed to me. I always felt like a caged animal in a work zoo. If we lived in this free society I wondered, how come we can’t leave until 5:00? I began saying to colleagues, “Let’s bust out of here and sit at an outdoor cafe and drink salty margaritas.”
They’d say, “Oh, that sounds fun. Too much work today. Maybe next week?”
Those weeks turned into years and finally into a decade and still no disobedient margarita hookey.
I realized I had to help myself if I wanted to fall in love with life again. I volunteered at a theater in the next town as the curtain puller. This simple act of opening and closing an unbelievably heavy curtain led to me opening a new act on my own life.
One of the actors introduced me to karaoke and returned me to hiking and bike riding. With life once again coursing through my veins, I also reconnected with my rebellious roots.
I fell in love with life again. We’ve been going strong ever since.
Muse thx,
Giulietta
p.s. A few years ago I celebrated my birthday drinking salty margaritas at an outdoor cafe. As wonderful as I’d imagined. How about you? Have you had your margarita moment?
RSS
I remember the exact day I started my first “real job”. I looked at the clock all day, thinking “this is it?”. I was told “oh, you’ll get used to it”. 20 years later I was not used to it. Finally, after having my first child I vowed to never go back to the J.O.B. Oh, its taken sacrifices… big ones… but, to be in love with life again is priceless. Thanks for sharing your story! Loved it. Great way for me to start my day!
Hi Michele,
Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment! Most appreciated. Absolutely! How do we get used to being imprisoned all day? Doesn’t feel natural at all. Guys at one job I worked at used to “joke” that we were being furloughed for the night and weekend. That’s why I love working at home. I don’t spend my days looking at the clock, wishing my precious life away to get some time with my precious life. It’s just here!
Have a terrific day … Thx. G.
I’m going to follow on Michele’s heels, but with a different spin. I worked for the Post Office for twenty years and thought the same: “Is this is?” I retired early, and started doing part time jobs–one was substitute teaching. Fell in love–with teaching, the kids, and (back in love with) books. I’m almost finished with my second year of teaching, and I’m loving life, loving my job, and loving the new me!
Hi Susan,
Congrats for falling in love with your life and the new you! Children can feel which teachers love teaching. I too loved those teachers. Thank you for contributing your life successes! It can take awhile to find our right lives.
Thx. G.
Fabulous piece, Giuletta. It’s funny because “zest for life” has become such a funny cliche phrase, but this piece makes me think about what it really refers to.
What I find so amazing is that the “is this all there is?” moment comes as rite of passage in so many lives – but where we go with it varies so dramatically across individuals. Waking up to life is all about doing what brings each of us – as individuals – vitality and meaning – and that usually requires leaving the herd and being willing to follow ourselves.
Tara
Hi Tara,
Yes! Waking up means leaving the herd and being willing to follow ourselves — finally. So beautifully stated! It’s really a courageous act to break away from the herd. I also agree it’s a rite of passage – one that isn’t exactly encouraged!
Much thx, G.
Hey Giulietta,
Margarita moment? No and yes.
No, I still have an iconic image in my head of something I’d like to do that somehow symbolizes the completion of this part of the journey.
Yes, though, because I have a less iconic margarita moment every morning when I wake up and know that I’m doing what I’ve always wanted to do and what (I feel) I was made to do.
If (when) the iconic moment comes to pass it will be a lot of fun and I’ll enjoy a sentimental moment of self-back-patting. But the moment will never compare to the daily realization – it will just be easier to isolate in time and space. The real margarita dynamic is ubiquitous now, and that’s been worth all the sacrifices regardless of where it takes me.
Thanks for always leaning into the light.
Hey Michael,
It’s sounds like you have a never ending Margarita Moment (I almost called this post just that.) that may be crowned with an even more glorious Margarita Moment.
Love it! I think I need to find an outdoor cafe tomorrow and toss back another salty one … Maybe at karaoke on Thursday.
Happy to be leaning into the light …
As always, appreciate your wondrous comments.
G.
Thanks for this great post.
I’m definitely in need of some salty margaritas at outdoor cafes (why is it that when I picture my ideal lifestyle it always involves more time eating and drinking outdoors? 🙂 as well as more hiking, nature time, and dancing.
I was *Just* thinking about these very things last night.
Thanks for the inspiration, you rebel, you.
Hugs,
Jenna
Hey Jenna,
If you lived closer, we could toss back a few at an outdoor cafe! We need more of them in the world. Most everyone loves a drink on a patio/deck. Perhaps, you can take the family and do some nature hikes?
Thx for stopping by! G.
Hi Giulietta,
This is my first visit to your blog. I really enjoyed your piece. Falling in love with our lives – I love that. To be honest there are some days I’m truly overjoyed and in love with my life and then there are those other days….. But overall when I think about it – I wouldn’t change a thing. I do feel so lucky most of the time. An occasional salty margarita helps though!!
Hi Angela,
I love getting new visitors! Thanks for stopping by to muse about life. I’m happy to hear that you wouldn’t change a thing in your life. Me too …
Enjoy its magic, Giulietta
I’ve had margarita moments, even in Margarita-ville.
I try to use monthly improvement sprints to break out of ruts. Each month I pick a new focus, or thing to learn, and that let’s me cycle through at least 12 new interests a year, or sharpen some old saws. It’s like a portfolio.
Hi J.D.,
Monthly improvement sprints! What a fantastic idea. Great name. It is a life portfolio
I understand there are J. Buffet Margarita-ville cafes in Key West, Arizona, Florida, Vegas, Connecticut, New York, South Carolina, Mexico, etc. Will be going through Vegas to hike in Utah this fall. Can check the one out there. Or are you referring to somewhere specific?
Thx. G.
Giulietta – thank you so for visiting my wedding blog! I really appreciate you taking the time to comment 🙂
Great post – I find making goals for myself with realistic deadlines – not just “on the bucket list” but “I want to do this by July!” really keeps me motivated and enjoying life 🙂
Hey Emily,
Love to find new blogs. My first visit to a wedding one! Good point about bucket lists. You want to do things before they end up on your “bucket” list. They may or may not happen at that point. Thx. G.
Today I looked out the window, Giulietta, and thought that the reason so many people are sad and stuck is because they do actually know how to live differently, but they don’t do it. It seems so big. What I love about your post is that you show us that the simple act of pulling a curtain in a theatre can bring us back to life. It’s big, but it’s not. You know what I mean? So I raise a toast to you. And I do have some favorite margarita moments. What is it about margaritas???
Hi Patty,
You always write in a heartfelt manner — here in comments and on your amazing blog.
I agree, most folks know how — they take seminars on the how, they read books on the how, yet they cannot dive into the how.
I actually had a margarita when I went out to dinner! They refresh and revitalize for whatever reason.
Feeling alive, G.
Giulietta, thank you, it was especially encouraging reading about your childhood sense of wonder in the natural world – a sense that is shut down so rapidly and often fatally when we go to school to learn the ways of the “real” world. What a twisted perception that imprisons most of us in modern society for the rest of our lives.
The breakthrough you experienced as a curtain puller was also very interesting for me. I see this as a physical energy shift that triggered the inner emotional and spiritual response that allowed you to move into a new phase of your life. This clear link between our physical energy flow and our inner state is a foundation in my own life – we cannot exist fully without our physical connection with the natural world (actually we would not exist at all) and reconnecting with our sensory experiences at the fundamental, physical level leads us home to reconnection with the deepest part of ourselves. We become spiritual, integrated, and fully engaged again through this renewed sense of wonder in the greater web of life.
From the mountains of Japan, thank you and morning greetings to you – Catrien Ross.
Hi Catrien,
Your writing always mesmerizes – even the comments!
Why each generation shuts down the next’s marvelous relationships with the natural world has never made any sense to me.
What we are doing doesn’t work. Why keep doing it?
You are so right that curtain symbolized a shift. At first it was so heavy, it kinda pulled me up as I opened and closed it. Then after a few days we worked together — me and this seemingly inanimate object that had much to teach me about myself.
You gave me a great idea for a new essay! Triple thx.
G.