I hope I keep finding new things to love as I get older. I'd like to keep coming across songs that make me want to play them again, even if most days I still put on music I've known for years.
On weekends, I want to spend hours talking with a friend about a sport I've only just taken up. It would be nice to have lived a long time and still be able to say, “I didn't know this could be so much fun.”
That probably starts with paying more attention to an ordinary day. I don't need much of a reason to enjoy a good meal, stop to say hello to a dog, or notice that the evening air has changed.
None of it looks especially important when I write it down. But I'd rather have a few things like that to remember than let another day go by unnoticed. When loving life sounds too vague, I can at least say I liked my dinner, or that it felt good to be outside.
I want to know why someone keeps going back to the mountains, or how they can sit with an instrument for hours. And I'd like to try more things myself, without deciding in advance whether I'm the sort of person who does them.
Some won't be as much fun as I'd hoped, and I'll probably give them up. Others may end up staying with me for years. It seems a shame to miss out just because I'm worried I'll be bad at it.
There are ideas I'd like to spend more time with, too. I'd like to read more philosophy and listen to people who live differently from me.
Some have a goal that keeps them busy all day. Others have worked hard to leave their afternoons free for reading. I don't feel much need to choose between them. I'm more interested in what each person finds worth the effort.
My own answer may change after a conversation, or a few years. And there are plenty of ways of living I haven't tried. I don't want to write them off already.
Of course, it's easy enough to say all this before I actually have to do it. Walking into a class where everyone else seems to know what they're doing may be another matter. So might speaking first to someone I'd like to get to know, or admitting that an idea I've held on to no longer makes sense.
I'll probably want to leave sometimes. I don't expect that to go away. I just hope I can put up with a little of the awkwardness instead of leaving before I've had a chance to find out more.
As I find more things to care about, I notice things I would have passed by before. If I like a shop, I start hoping it will still be there next year. I notice whether the trees along my usual walking route are doing well. I can read a book by someone I've never heard of and end up waiting for their next one.
Without quite setting out to, I get interested in the lives behind these things. I'd like to follow that interest a little further, beyond the people and places I already know.
Love wins all. I want to keep finding things to love, including things I don't yet understand and would probably be nervous about trying.
I hope we'll all keep making time for that. When we like something, let's say so. If something looks interesting, we can go and try it without waiting to feel entirely ready.
Next time we meet, tell me about something you've come to love. I hope I'll have a story of my own.