Live Your Life

I messed up.

I drank too much at the downtown bar. The things I said; they weren’t coming from my better self, but rather the bastard who surfaces when a broken heart and an excess of whiskey take hold of one another beneath my skin. I hurt a girl I thought I loved. I was an embarrassment to the friends who stuck with me.

The next day I sent text messages. Apologies. Weak jokes. Drivel.

The messages went unanswered.

I asked a good friend what I could do to make amends.

"It's not about what you say or do now," he said. "Or tomorrow. Or the next day. It's about waking up every morning and showing the world you're not that bastard. It's not about one night. It's about how you live your life."

Many years have passed since that night. I've made amends and torn new wounds, built some things and broken others. But those words about the way you live your life have stuck with me, much the same as the old writer's adage about how you have to show your readers something instead of telling them about it.

I can't tell you exactly what this blog will be. You'll just have to stick around and let me show you.