This life is short.

It moves faster than youth believes and slower than age can bear, and in between there is this one irreplaceable chance to decide what it will have meant. We make ourselves small to fit inside spaces that were never meant to hold us. We call it being careful, being practical, being responsible, when really, if we are honest, we are simply afraid.

Do not let life happen to you. Take hold of it with both hands. Be brave enough to lose something small in pursuit of something true. The love you do not choose, the chance you do not take, the door you stand outside of because you are afraid of what it costs to walk through, these things do not disappear. They have a way of remaining. They make themselves known in the quiet and in the honesty that comes when there is nothing left to protect.

Adele knew this. She knew it when it was almost too late to do anything but know it.

You still have time.

Do not allow life to simply happen to you. Take the hand that is offered. Say the words that are true. Walk through the door while it is open.

You may not get another one.