Hurricane Charley teaches us to Seize the Day

What can we learn from Hurricane Charley?

We can learn that we need to seize the day... enjoy the way we live and where we want to live and know that some day we will all pay a price, face the devil and deal with disaster.

I've heard more people complain about the "stupid people" who live "down there" and I've had enough. People live where they want to live..where they NEED to live.

Some people need the sunshine and open water more than others. Some need the seasons. Some need snow. Some need flat prairie.

Everywhere has its natural disaster and even those unglamourous places like New Jersey have their own brand of misery day by day that could bore you to death or cause some man who might have made it living in Naples to die of shoveling snow in his driveway while he dreamed of living by the sea in Florida.

I love Key West. One day I may live there. One day I may die there ..while some storm surge covers my island I love from South Beach to Mallory Square.

I hope not. I pray not. But, it could happen and it will be my way to live and my way to die.

Or..I could fall madly in love with someone from somewhere far away and move away with them and fall in love with their home, their land.. because home is where the heart is.. for me anyway.

Short of being "there" my heart is always in Key West.

Life happens.. its not fluid. It changes moment by moment like the path of a hurricane.

Opportunities arise... you meet someone who takes your breath away, you hear a good song or you see a sunrise that inspires you. It's about DOING not dreaming, not thinking, not wishing on a star. It's about daring to live and make your dreams come true and if along the way you suddenly dream a new dream its about seizing the day and going after it with everything you have inside you.

For years I dreamed or didn't dream. I kept dreams deep down inside where no one could see them..not even me. Someone woke those dreams and for a while I remembered them but then... Nothing Happened. Nothing. Just dreams and schemes and circus clowns and a dizzying dazzling array of people appearing but not doing much more than watching and writing and keeping me on hold for several years while I had fun.. talking and laughing and thinking and writing and musing on life and love and the tropics.

Things change.

Once I had a dream.. a vision really. I'd meet someone.. most likely someone I already knew from somewhere (not saying who as its my business) and we'd get married on this little island down in the Keys off of US1.. gulfside I think..and Jimmy Buffett would play with just his guitar like I heard him do years ago and the end would justify the means.

I used to be a big believer in Machivelli. I'm not anymore. But, I was and I thought it would all be allright in the end. But, things change. And, the more they change the more they stay the same.

People play games so long its all they know. Reality doesnt exist ... they make up their own reality and they play and want you to play along on their time. When its good for them, not when its good for you. Because they know whats best.

People played in the Florida sunshine. They had good lives. They deserved them after a lifetime of working hard up north. Someone came along and sold them a dream of sunshine and water out their back door. Of sitting at the end of the day with the one they loved and lived with their whole lives and watching the sun go down into the beautiful waters of the Gulf of Mexico. They were not cheated. Some died happily in their sleep before Charley blew through. And, some lost their mates after a few years there and met other mates who had also become widowed and they found love again in paradise. And, some...happy to be along with their terriers watched the sun go down alone...happy, because some people are happy loners.

Most knew they could get creamed in a storm but either they didn't care and stubbornly took their chances or they were in denial that it could happen. Just as much as I had been in denial for many years that "nothing was going to happen." And, either way I had fun in the sun while waiting for that destiny to never come.

We all live in denial and we all get complacent. Those of us who think more than do.. And, other times we reach out for something we want and go after it. We feel compelled to..So.........lots of people felt compelled to move south where they dreamed of and didn't spend their lives up north whining about the weather, the snow, the ice and some bad marriage where their partner refused to leave some sister or family member and didn't to join them and live in a paradise because usually their partner was not their priority.When you love someone... really love them..THEY are your priority. Whether its the man or the woman who goes along.. someone does.. or you find a way to do both or you WORK at it..you don't complain or dream, you DO.

Destiny isn't something that grabs us...it wakes us up, it winks at us.. it whispers and beckons us forward but if we are too lazy or too afraid or too unable to trust or too scared then that chances passes us by. And, its gone..poof and we live with regrets.

This is not about a bunch of people who were stupid and moved to South Florida and got hit by a storm.It's about too much media screaming Tampa. About denial of local officials who didn't want to scare people off from buying homes and vacationing in Port Charlotte and Sanibel Island.. like Miami..its not a shark unless it walks up onto Biscayne Blvd and bites you ... It's about people wanting to do things their way and living their life their way and the only thing I can say is that... people should pay more attention to the authorities and not think they know it all..never assume... never live in denial that the worse could happen.. or the best could happen.

Play it as it comes... and when you meet someone you want to know better...don't let five years fly by and seize the day..don't let decades slide by... don't let a minute go by and let them walk out of your life without getting to know them better.

Take a chance on life and love.

Live where you want to live because you can always lose your lover .. your husband.. your spouse but at least you will wake up where you love it so much that you will always be happy on some level.

Grab, reach for tomorrow..live today, seize today.. it's all you have for sure.

Memories are wonderful but from experience they are more beautiful when they are a promise of more to come than when they are all you have left to enjoy.

Earl is out there somewhere...his butt is hanging down onto South America.. looks a bit like he's had too much beer, probably will have a beer belly but if he's lucky something will grab him and push in on by and keep him alive.

Danielle is one hell of a girl. Climo says she moves north and out to sea.. too fast, too soon, too far away. Wouldn't bet on climo this year..

Nothing is the same this year..nope. And, I say that smiling as I am smiling a lot lately.

Learn from the past, enjoy today and reach out for tomorrow..

Nice song.. for some reason this song came to my mind today. Always loved the tempo, the beat and feel of the song...

Living and Dying in 3/4 time.. dance with me ..dance with me..

Nautical Wheelers lyrics
By: Jimmy Buffett 1974

Nautical Wheelers who call themselves sailors

Play fiddle tunes under the stars

Petticoats rustle, workin' shoes scuffle

Shuffle on down to the bar

Where the jukebox is blastin' and the liquor is flowin'

An occasional bottle of wine

That's 'cause everyone here is just more than contented

To be livin' and dyin' in three-quarter time

Chorus:

And it's dance with me, dance with me,

Nautical Wheelers

Take me to stars that you know

Come on and dance with me, dance with me,

Nautical Wheelers I want so badly to go

Well, the left foot'll follow

Where the right foot has travelled

Down to the sidewalks unglued

Into the streets of my city so neat

Where nobody cares what you do

Sonia's just grinnin' and Phil is ecstatic Mason has jumped in the sea

And I'm hangin' on to a line from my sailboat All Nautical Wheelers save me

Chorus:

And it's dance with me, dance with me, Nautical Wheelers

Take me to stars that you know

Come on and dance with me, dance with me, Nautical Wheelers I want so badly to go

Well the sunrise'll bring on Sleep that's escaped us Everyone's off to their bed

There'll be huggin', squeezin' Little pleazin' and teasin'

And rubbin' of each other's heads

So won't you dream on compadres, seems nothing escapes you

Nothin', no reason, no rhyme

That's 'cause everyone here is just more than contented To be livin' and dyin' in three-quarter time

Chorus: A

nd it's dance with me, dance with me, Nautical Wheelers

Take me to stars that you know

Come on and dance with me, dance with me,

Nautical Wheelers I want so badly to go

Coda: I want so badly to go Yes, I want so badly to go

(figures it would have a coda...rolling eyes)