by Rachel Brady

I saw a billboard with this phrase today and thought to myself, “Yes. Life is too short to eat boring rice.” It is too short to do a lot of things.

Life is too short for me to wear clothes that don’t fit right just because I already own them. So what? I’ll give them away and then somebody else can own them. Problem solved.

It’s too short for painful shoes. Although, I will wear them to dress up.
Because life is also too short not to dress up sometimes.

Life is too short for me to bother with that little, almost-gone, flat and skinny yet not quite useless piece of soap that is left right before a bar disintegrates. I’m finished with that piece of soap.

Life’s too short to gut out reading a book that isn’t amazing. There are more incredible books in the world than I can read in my lifetime. I’m gonna stick with those.

Life is too short not to wear perfume even when it’s just me and the dishwasher.

Life is too short to say no to something today because of something that might happen tomorrow. That something also might not happen tomorrow. Where will that leave me? Wishing I’d done something different yesterday, that’s where.

Life’s too short to worry about what people think about me. Who am I to think they are thinking anything about me? That’s kind of narcissistic. Instead I’ll assume nobody is thinking anything about me. Then I can do whatever I want. I’ll have way more fun.

Life is too short to eat high-calorie but utterly boring food, like stale cookies from the supermarket. Yes to 400 calorie divine food, like the homemade, glorious brownies that my friend Wally brings to the office pot-luck lunches. No to 400 calorie boring food, like store bought birthday cake with waxy icing.

Unless I feel like eating it that day. Life is too short not to do what I feel like sometimes.

Life is too short for complaining. Fix or accept.

Too short for blame.

Also for grudges.

Too short for agonizing over decisions. I recently had to buy a clock. I went to Target and they didn’t have quite what I wanted. On the spot, I decided that I didn’t need the best clock on the planet. The best one at Target would suffice. So I picked one. The world didn’t end.

Life’s too short for second guessing the past. I made the best choices I could at the time, with the information I had at the time. Sure, I know more now. But, I didn’t then. Short of time travel, there’s no solution I see here other than moving forward. Life is One Way.

Life is too short to play my favorite music at a reasonable volume.

It’s too short to worry about grass stains.

And that billboard was right. It’s way to short to eat boring rice.