Surprised that I was not going out to a restaurant to celebrate a special occasion, a colleague told me last week that I was wrong not to do so. “Live every day as if it’s the last one,” he said. To which I replied that if I were to take that literally, I certainly wouldn’t have gone in to work that day.
Last Saturday we spent the afternoon in the backyard, under the shade of the ashes. The sunbeams danced to the music of the crickets in the meadow as the branches swayed in the late summer breeze. The menu was simple, but perfectly cooked–turkey and beef kebabs, lentils and green salad. After the Roquefort cheese, dessert was homemade yogurt ice cream, then coffee with Tunisian sweets from Masmoudi that a friend brought back from vacation. We talked and laughed for hours.
Nothing beats having a picnic with people you love–combining nature with eating, making plans, sharing stories or just talking about simple things. I wouldn’t trade these times for any dinner in a three-star restaurant, and I’ve had many of those too. Living every day to the fullest isn’t about always doing something special, rather it’s more about deeply experiencing every moment, no matter how mundane.
In the 1982 documentary La vie au bout des doigts (Life at your fingertips), Patrick Edlinger, one of the world’s most talented and daring rock climbers, spoke about his life and philosophy. Although his athletic prowess was anything but mundane, he put it into focus in basic terms,
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The well-prepared mind 