The Carpe Diem Attitude

As we grow older, time becomes more valuable because there will be less of it in the future.  I remember when I was fourteen years old at Bocas del Toro, I thought I was going to live forever.  I never gave thought of it.  Time was always there for granted.  Now at 62, I know that time ahead is getting smaller and smaller as the day passes and the calendar leaves fall.

I’ve a developed a new attitude towards the future trying to make every day count.  I started reading again, making my blog content better, taking photographs and planning a new photographic project with a friend.   I started walking once more early in the morning as I used to.  In other words, I started to make a better use of my remaining time.  I call it the Carpe Diem Attitude.

Carpe Diem is a literary expression used by Roman lyric poet Horace in one of his Odes (Carmina):

“Don’t ask (it’s forbidden to know) what final fate the gods have what end the gods will give me or you, Leuconoe.

Don’t play with Babylonian fortune-telling either. It is better to endure whatever will be.

Whether Jupiter has allotted to you many more winters or this final one which even now wears out the Tyrrhenian sea on the rocks placed opposite—be smart, drink your wine. Scale back your long hopes to a short period. While we speak, envious time will have {already} fled

Seize the day and place no trust in tomorrow.”

In a nutshell:

Dum loquimur, fugerit invida
Aetas: carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero

Which means:  While we’re talking, envious time is fleeing: seize the day, put no trust in the future.

Having said this, say Hello to Carpe Diem and Goodbye to Procrastination.  Good Day.