“Plan life like you are going to live forever: Live life like it’s your last day on earth.”

I plan to do in life everything that has ever made me happy, and leave space for whatever might make me happy that I haven’t thought of yet. I’ll need forever to do this I guess simply because I am an ever evolving being. But even if I’m not, even as just Christine Butler, I want a long time to experience, to savour, all that I’d ever want to do, in all the various ways it’s possible for me to do them. And it will take longer because it is not just about the action: it’s about the contemplation, the dreams put out in hope, the gradual moving towards the goal, the shifting and changing of preferences, the fun, the sleep, the quickening of the experience, and then to the quiet contemplation of what was. See, it could well take forever.

If this was the last day on earth for me, then I would be happy to stay put and meditate on love, to read about people’s joys, to think on peace and hope in the world. Because feeling love and happiness, and feeling peace within me, to my mind is the highest achievement I can attain as a human being on a day-to-day basis. Everything else is just a distraction.