Not only is YOLO BS, but I believe thinking that way will keep you stuck and living so much smaller than you could be living.

As I write this I’m mid-way through a 2-week Mom-sitting gig. Carolyn Nelson, my sister’s 94 year-old mother-in-law, is my charge. She’s and has been living with my sister and her husband (Carolyn’s son, Ken) since the first of the year when it became too much for her to live on her own. 

The Many Stories of Carolyn

She described how hungry, desperate, out-of-work men would jump on and off the rail cars near her house and that many of them would knock on her door asking for food, water, anything that could be spared. How her mother would give them what she could but no one had much and there wasn’t a lot to give. 

I heard the story about meeting her husband Ken (my sister’s husband’s father) and how they lived and worked in Wharton, Texas, had their two boys, how her husband’s work took them to North Carolina. She didn’t work in North Carolina and she told me about how she and a friend visited a lot of places, shopped, and the kind of trees that grew there. 

The stories continue, back to Austin - how she and her husband retired and bought a small trailer home south Texas - and then a larger trailer home - then selling the trailer home because they had aged beyond the point of being able to manage it all. I heard about the trips they took, the friends they met, and the moments of pain and awe experienced along the way. 

Each story started with an event that opened a new story, which meant that an old story had ended.

If I were to guess, I’d say Carolyn has lived at least 20++ various stories - and she's just started another one. Last month the sale of her house, where she's lived for over 40 years, was finalized.

Each Story is a Life of Its Own

Each story - or "life" is born of a change or event that requires a transition from the way life WAS, to the way life IS - and there is a GAP between the new and the old that had to be crossed to adjust and thrive.

So, I’ve come to the realization that living like “YOLO” will actually keep you from living your best life (lives). 

Why? 

Because it makes us see the gaps we ALL experience throughout our life, as something to run from. The gaps are NOT something to avoid and run away from. The gaps are to be recognized, respected and navigated.