A fresh tuna sandwich, iced Café au Lait, and a sunny day in Southern California. Even on a field trip to the Getty Museum, amongst so many people and so many of my classmates, a moment in sun, taking all of the pieces of the collection and the fresh air made everything so the much more sweeter. For a brief moment, everything melted away and I was living the sweet life.
The Italians have it down to an exact science, calling it La Dolce Vida. The sweet life. You may have seen it mentioned in the movies, on TV, even some really interesting books, but have you ever really seen it? Have you ever seen someone who truly knows how to relax, have fun, and indulges in life without worrying about what is going to happen next, or what already happened? It’s hard to adhere to that way of life, even when you are still in High School. So how can we learn it, without taking some life-changing journey while in out thirties to some distant place where a Guru of relaxation will force us to slow down and show us what we’ve known all along? How do we learn to live the sweet life?!
It’s easy, actually. So easy, in fact, that we often overlook how to be ourselves and learn to sit back and enjoy the sunshine, or even the rain. You don’t even need to have some sort of trendy thing in front of you, be at some high end place, and be amongst people to let go. You could be in the middle of New York, or the middle of you backyard and still relax. All you need to do is take a deep breath, look at the sky, but not at the sun, smile, and relax. That’s it! All you need to do! You could even have that big project right in front of you on your desk, and be able to look outside of that window and be able to smile. Sometimes, it’s just letting go of what you are holding on to in your head, sometimes it’s just acknowledging that there will always be more to life than worry and work and hurryhurryhurry. La Dolce Vida is something that we must all aspire to, never mind that the deadline is in just a few hours and you’ve no time to just take a breather and then plunge back into the swirling vortex of worry and work. All it takes is a smile, a deep breath, and a quick little reflection.