Just Say Yes

Snow day! Wake up and shout "Yes!" to a gift day of possibilities, a chance to catch up on all dreams deferred, those small and large, shallow and deep.  That book I couldn't finish? Yes, I can.  That blog I've been meaning to write? Yes, I can. That nap I long for all week? Yes, I will. That sink I've been meaning to clean? Yes, I can. (But I probably won't.)

I'm sick and tired of the every day "No." No,  don't eat that. No, we could never do that. No, no one makes a living doing that.  No, you shouldn't watch Signs, again. You've already seen it at least six times.

In improvisation classes there is only one rule, say yes. I think we should all live by it. Without yes, fear thrives. Without yes, innovation dies. Without yes, society stagnates. Yes is so much more fun.

Yes didn't stop me from leaping at the chance to teach in England for a year. Yes didn't stop me from going on safari in Kenya. Yes didn't stop me from flying solo to New Zealand. Those experiences are embedded in my world view and undoubtedly make me a better person for having had them.

Is saying yes always easy? Not necessarily. No is the easiest word in the world to say. No requires no forethought, no contemplation, no bravery. Yes takes real courage, real conviction. No is the coward's way out of complexity, of challenge, of life.

At the end when I take my own accounting, how sad it would be to continue to declare final, definitive "nos." I hope to be uttering "Yes, I pursued my passion. Yes, I did it all, Yes, I have no regrets. And most of all Yes, I loved and was loved."