Words To Live It Up By

By John P. Shanley

Choose Life over the other stuff.
Get out of your head.
Live.
Dress up.
Eat.
Touch people.
Help out.
Give up.
Love people.
Give your best away.
There’s more.
What’s the problem?
Relax.
You’re going to die.
Throw a party.
Eat off my plate.
Sing to me.
Meet me in the bedroom.
Get a massage.
Give one.
Let your amazement out into the room.
Pry open the box you hide your joy in.
Be a poem.

Author: Jim Hagarty

I am a 72-year-old retired journalist, busy recovering from a lifelong career as an unretired journalist. This year marks a half century of my scratching out little fables about life. My interests include genealogy, humour and music. I live in a little blue shack in Canada and spend most of my time trying to stay out of trouble. I am not that good at it. I also spent years teaching journalism. Poor state of journalism today: My fault. I have a family I don't deserve, a dog that adores me, and two cars the junk yard refuses to accept. My prized possessions include my old guitar and a razor my Dad gave me when I was 14 and which I still use when I bother to shave. Oh, and my great-great-grandfather's blackthorn stick he brought from Ireland in the 1850s. I have only one opinion but it is a good one: People take too many showers.