When was the last time you did a cartwheel? - A letter to me

Sometimes the brevity of life slaps you in the face. Something happens and all of a sudden the little box you were living in is turned upside down, leaving you and all the other contents of your neatly-packed life tumbling through the darkness.

As you're falling, you think about your life. Always, always, always the things you were working towards so fervently take up residence at the bottom of the priority list, and the things you were neglecting, become all you can see.

You think about the people you've loved but neglected, the vacations you never had enough time for, the letters you never wrote, the wrongs you've never apologized for, and every single thing you would do to make that special someone feel all the love you hold in your heart.

You think about when life became a to-do list instead of a quest of discovery and the expression of art, love, and adventure.

When did you outgrow the best parts in your life? Have you forgotten the rush of accomplishment after doing a cartwheel? Do you remember eating raw cookie dough and not worrying about getting a disease? Do you miss falling asleep on the couch to a good movie just because you didn't want to get up and go to bed? How about the warmth you get when you hug your grandma? Or the pleasure of letting sand grind between your toes, and not having to worry about it making a mess in the car on the way home? When's the last time you danced to music without wondering what people would think of you? When did you stop putting on beautiful dresses, just to parade around the house? How could you stop going outside to lay on the trampoline and look up at the stars, no matter how cold it got?

When you start taking yourself a little too seriously, or life gets a little to hard, ask yourself this question:

When was the last time I did a cartwheel?