You must always be intoxicated!
Honestly growing up in Utah I would have heard this statement & immediately thought about beer parties, lots of drinking …BUT, I was just reading through some beloved quotes and came across this thought…
“You must always be intoxicated. That sums it all up: it’s the only question. In order not to feel the horrible burden of Time which breaks your back and bends you down to earth, you must be unremittingly intoxicated. But on what? Wine, poetry, virtue, as you please. But never be sober. And if it should chance that sometimes, on the steps of a palace, on the green grass of a ditch, in the bleak solitude of your room, you wake up and you intoxication has already diminished or disappeared, ask the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock, ask everything that flees, everything that groans, everything that rolls, everything that sings, everything that speaks, ask them what time it is and the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock, will reply: It’s time to be intoxicated!! If you do not wish to be one of the tortured slaves of Time, never be sober: never ever be sober! Use wine, poetry, or virtue, as you please.” -Charles-Pierre Baudelaire
What fills you with intoxication? What fills you with a sense of being lit up? What stirs your soul and makes you full of wonder? There are so many things in this life that make you stop and think. There are so many things that we are given to make our day a little better, a little brighter. Are you filled with moments of pure happiness, a true sense of deep intoxication for the life you are living? What makes your heart sing?? What are you doing & what are you not doing to give you that thrill of existence.
There was another quote that made me stop, it made my heart ache for the many moments I take for granted…A full moon, noticing the way water flows, enjoying the mystery of the ocean, hugging my daughter more, being healthy & strong, being able to see, reminiscing, laughing, loving…there are so many things we pass by, so many things that will help increase the deep intoxication for life that we miss. The following quote made me strive to notice things a little more.
“…because we don’t know [when we will die], we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that’s so deeply a part of your being that you can’t even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.” -Paul Bowles
So, today, I make a wish that we will all strive for intoxication!! Something that makes you smile, something that will make your eyes well up in gratitude, something that will move you to see things a little differently. Notice the big and little things held within your life, the moments of grace, the moments of joy, the moments that lead to the well of intoxication, with a knowing that this well will not always be there, so it must be cherished, enjoyed slowly and savored with every moment.
Cheers to life!! Best wishes to you. -Heather
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