Publisher - January 2025

Photography by
Cassidy Dunn Photography

“Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life!”
— Omar Khayyam —

What are you waiting for? The children to be older? Your job to get better? A raise? Retirement? Perhaps you know for sure your life will be better once you lose 20 pounds or get a bigger house. Are you waiting to feel better? Heal? Do you believe that once all or some of these things—or whatever it is you’re waiting for—happen, life will be so much better. Finally, the time will come when you can be happy and start to live the life you were meant to live. Right?

So, I have to ask again, what are you waiting for?

The time to be happy is now. The time to live is now. Waiting is the key component of regret. I don’t know if you remember when you were a child, and all you ever wanted was to be an adult. Everything would be so much better then…once you were an adult. How’s that working for you? Are you ready to be a child again?

I would not want to go back to childhood, but I would love to reconnect with my child-like sense of freedom. Wouldn’t it be joyous to have days where nothing is calling your name other than sunshine and daydreams?

Here’s what we didn’t understand as children: Adults spelled relief R-O-L-A-I-D. We saw the television commercial, but didn’t quite get that adults needed meds to get though the day. Comedienne/actress Lily Tomlin said, “For fast-acting relief, try slowing down.” Now, she’s on to something.

You see, when you slow down, your life can better come into focus. It’s just like riding in a speeding car. Everything’s a blur when you’re traveling at 70 miles per hour. However, if you slow down, all of a sudden you notice the old, rusted silo in the pasture as you pass by, and the tattered wooden farmhouse tucked into the vine-covered oaks nearby. You see the white fluffy clouds before you and take a minute to see if their shapes resemble something familiar. If you slow down enough, you may even notice the pull of your breath and the beat of your heart, which is when life begins to feel real again—like you belong. In fact, you may even begin to hear the longings of your heart’s desires if you slow down a little each day and start to pay attention.

Now that you can hear them, you can decide to tune in to your desires and remember who you really are. You are not just the kid’s Uber driver, or the grandchildren’s babysitter. You may be a wife, a mom, a daughter, an aunt, a boss, an employee, a woman of faith, or an advocate. You may be all of them. But when is the last time you found pleasure in or felt like one of these titles?

Life has a way of wearing us out, and with that, we can become numb, seriously going from task to task, checking all the boxes as our marker of success. The problem is more boxes are always added before all the boxes can be checked. That’s not a bad thing; it’s just the way life is—a series of doing. However, we have to have moments of just being in order to be present in our lives. This includes not waiting to be happy, or satisfied, or making your next move, or leveling up, or living out your dream.

Wanting to be an adult as a child should be lesson enough that tomorrow is not always better. Very few ever reach that pinnacle in life where every duck is in a row. The curtain of our “life’s show” goes up when we are born, and life is lived on that stage until we die, when our curtain goes down. If you were an audience member watching your life’s show, how would you feel? Riveted, bored, sad, happy, maybe a little of all these emotions? However, the question to ponder is, if your curtain closed today, what would you think of yourself?

Every second can’t be thrilling, but overall, would you be happy with your efforts and choices you made? Have you been authentic to yourself? Regardless of your answer, one second of the past cannot be changed. Fortunately, this second can be! We can all start finding joy right now no matter what, even if you need to lose 20 pounds, get a raise and improve your marriage. The only thing stopping you is you. Don’t let the problems of today, or the pursuit of tomorrow, diminish the joy of right now. Everyday brings some problems, and there is still joy to be had! Stop wishing for today to be better, and realize you have the power to make today better.

I find myself at this crossroads. I am generally happy but sometimes feel as though life is passing me by, like I’m not soaking it all up. I don’t check in with myself like I should, which makes me lose track of who I am and what I need to be fulfilled. I don’t know if you’re in the same boat, but if so, it’s not hard to switch boats. It just takes choosing a boat that offers the life you actually want, and then saying no to all the other boats. In other words, fill your life with the people, places and things that literally float your boat.

I want to end my plea for living life with gusto with one of my favorite musings by Hunter S. Thompson, and I pray this will be me when my time comes: “Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, ‘Wow! What a ride!’”
That ride starts now! Let’s giddy up!

Think Pink,
Elizabeth Millen