Seize the day is not my motto. Plan the day is. I love a daily routine. I make lists in my planner and find great satisfaction – one of my friends says too much satisfaction – in checking things off as I complete them.
But yesterday I seized the day. As I walked down the driveway, I nearly bonked into a caterpillar that dangled, on an invisible thread, from a walnut tree. “Wish I had my camera,” I thought and continued on my way. But the caterpillar kept bugging me. When I saw another one down the road a bit, dangling from a neighbor’s tree, I knew this was the time of year for whatever it was to be doing whatever it does.
So I seized the day and picked up my camera when my laps took me near the house. I took several shots and was a little frustrated by camera shake as usual. An hour later, determined to seize the day again, I threw my camera and tripod in the back seat of the car. On the way to the grocery store, I stopped to get some less shaky shots.
Here’s the really good part. A slight breeze had risen, and the little caterpillar, dangling from a thread I wouldn’t have trusted for a second, swayed back and forth. My lens could not focus on the dot of fluff, and all the pictures were of a nicely focused tree trunk with a white blob in front of it. My earlier photos were much better, and the very first one was the best one of the lot.
Talk about instant gratification on my first try at seizing the day. Of course, I really only seized the moment which I think was a pretty good first step, and I’m determined to keep seizing. My planner is pretty full, I will pencil in an hour for seizing in September, then a half-day in October and and a whole day in November – maybe Thanksgiving Day since it’s a holiday.
I’m getting the hang of this spontaneity business. If somebody had told me how to plan it, I’d have started much sooner.
