Drink Up Life: Do not waste your dolce vita!
The other night as I was rearranging my kitchen counters, I experienced yet another one of my "epic" moments of clumsiness.I managed to trip over my own feet and drop a bottle of wine I'd been saving for a "special occasion".As I watched the bottle crash to the floor I couldn't help but think, the spirits must have been thirsty. I followed that thought by "it's good luck!" Which I say, when anything semi-bad happens.As I gingerly collected the shards of glass, and moped up my floor, I couldn't help but think thirsty spirits are really annoying, and probably regret not getting their fill of wine while living...You didn't know I was superstitious did you? I'm not all that superstitious, it's just when things like this happen a childhood spent around superstitious "abuelitas" comes to the forefront.Yet this little "accident" caused by my blundering, awkward feet got me to thinking... We weren't given this life to "wait" for special times, or important occasions.We should eat on the good china-I don't have any at the present- but that doesn't take away from the truth, that life is meant to be savored.If it wasn't, would God have given us beautiful sunrises, breathtaking vistas, chocolate, or love?Our world is a crazy place, horrible things happen every day. Yet beauty remains. Kindness and hope fill most of our hearts. Focus on the positive. Smile. Dance when the opportunity arises, and if it shouldn't, make the time to dance.If there's one thing I've learned about life in Italy, is that it forces you to slow down, they don't call it "la dolce vita" for nothing.So my friends, I implore you to pop open that really good bottle of wine and toast a perfectly good mundane day.Because you may just have a Humpty Dumpty moment and spill your Moscato all over the floor.Or tomorrow may not come, and your bottle will still be sitting there waiting for that perfect time.Drink up life. Slurp it up. Pour yourself another glass and toast your "dolce vita".Cent' anni,(May you live one hundred years!)nicole