Koogimama Ponders

When I look back on my life, twenty years down the road, I’m not going to look at the bad times.
I’m not going to share the tales of my screw ups, or sit and think what if. Instead, I’m going to smile and tell the good parts.

With photos to remind me of each memory, and people to add the details I may have left out, I will never forget. And I hope that one day, when I’m done sharing my life, my future children and future grandchildren will seek to make a life just as memorable.

Not even halfway through my life, I can already tell that my experiences so far are ones that will forever be cherished and carried through to my dying days.

Don’t look at that nasty conversation you had with someone two days before. Don’t sit and think that one person is going to ruin your life forever or that you’ll never be able to move past one fuck up.

So, do me a favor and put on this song before you continue: “Awful, Beautiful Life” by Darryl Worley

Highschool Graduation

Bluebonnets in Bertram

New Years 2011

Headed to Surfside

An evening of laughter

Ziegfest 2011

You never realize when you step into the truck, when the pavement starts slipping away beneath the tires and the radio blasts, that the next few hours are going to be something you remember forever.

In the time it takes to get from point A to point B, you establish a new chapter in your life, to fill with friends, with family, with laughter and with beer.

I am glad to have led the life I have. I’m glad to have fucked up before and I’m glad to have stood back up, no matter how bad I didn’t want to, and to have tried again. I’m glad that I drove down those highways, stopping for a watermelon on the side of the road, speeding out of control, and thankful that each day I was allowed another chance.

Another chance to stop in the middle of the highway just to go stand in a giant, grassy field.
Another chance to make the cashier at the gas station smile.
Another chance to blast my music so my ears rang when the car finally stopped.
Another chance to run away, just so I could come back, so much more grateful and appreciative.
Another chance to love and laugh, to live and breathe, to know that a scraped chin only hurts for a little bit.

Another chance to live as wildly and haphazardly as I wanted to, and to be given the heart that would always remind me to slow down just a bit and know who I am and what I can handle.

If you read this, could you look back and say, “I am so glad for those memories and those people who helped make it so”? It doesn’t matter if they’re still in your life or not, but when they were, they led you to create a story so brilliant and so unique. That’s something you can smile about, even if right now you don’t want to smile.

Just Live It

I hope that you can stop thinking about all that you haven’t done and wondering how you’ll get there. You will get there one day. It’s not going to happen overnight. But instead of focusing and vying to get there already, slow down and think about what got you to right here. This point.

So if you get the opportunity -

I hope you waste several bottles of lighter fluid just to make a magnificent tower of fire.

I hope you get the chance to take a hammer and tear down a wall, three walls, an entire structure.

I hope you get the opportunity to do something ridiculous, like catch a snake or jump into the river, fully clothed and that you can laugh about it.