My Rules.

This necklace was a Christmas gift to me...from ME. The time of year you are supposed to be thinking of what to buy everyone else and writing a list of suggestions for gifts you might like to receive. I couldn't resist.

I looked at all the other sayings they had on the scuffed silver discs laying in the display case...PLAY EVERYDAY...PRINCESS OF EVERYTHING...DON'T FORGET TO PLAY (which was my second choice)...and then I saw this. At first, it struck me as kinda cold -in a rude way. It made me think of a little girl in pig-tails and barefeet standing on a dirt pile, pouty lip hung out, glaring at her mother, not wanting to go inside to clean up and change out of her jeans for a family dinner. But, it was something I always thought about. Why shouldn't I be able to live how I want? As long as I am not hurting anyone else, or making the world a worse place rather than a better one, what's wrong with being me? I am not a bad person, in fact, I think I am a pretty decent person.

I circled around the words and then, saw them differently. MY LIFE. MY RULES. It isn't rude or cold at all. If I want to be a giver, I will give. If I want to be overly generous, I will. If I want to dance in the hallway and play air-guitar, I will. If I want to start my own business, I will (yes, even though "you have a stable job and good benefits with a guaranteed income" otherwise known as BORING!!!). If I don't ever want to grow up and only want to fly a bright red kite in the park with Mikey and my Puggies on a hot summer day, I WILL!!!! That's just it, it is my life and I am not going to be boring because I am over 30, I am not going to vote for Candidate A because someone tells me to and I will absolutely not live by anyone else's rules except for mine. (I mean, the law is different...I don't think the police would listen to me if I shouted "My Life, My Rules" as they threw me in a cruiser car for running naked through Osborne Village...)

I don't remember getting an official Instruction Manual on how to live life, so I will make my own. It's fair to say that if I just live a good life, do what I want to do and be happy, the world around me will be a better place...even if it is just my little world. That's not cold. That's not rude. That's just a rule.

I am going back to my dirt pile, in my jeans, where I am happy.