In “The Summer Day,” by Mary Oliver, she writes: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

It’s about noticing and it’s about making your one life count for you. When given an incredible gift, do you leave it wrapped or open it and enjoy the blessing? Do you rip it open? Carefully undue each piece of tape, saving the pretty paper for some other use? Or like a little toddler, do you dump it out and play with the box instead?

I tell myself that missteps happen, and that’s to be expected. But how I deal with them matters. It isn’t the thing you want to settle for, ignoring that one wild and precious life you have. It is the thing you want to continue to open wide to and experience in full, rich, and living color.

Yah, this is good advice. A good goal. Yet, I continue to settle. To give up dreams. To put life on hold, until…something. I’ve crawled out of a good many dark places, so I should be able to see the path now. But darkness, or maybe nothingness, is too easy to rest in. It isn’t a rejuvenating rest. It is a toss and turn kind of rest-less-ness. So, find your way. Find your say. Don’t ever settle.

Make one eensy move each day back toward that one wild and precious life. And I will make one too.