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Lauren Cerand is a figure from another era, a sophisticated lady who wears sparkly things, eats fabulous feasts, dances at swank cocktail parties until dawn, and hobnobs with New York City's artsy elite. (I know because I stalk her online, reading of her various adventures in my ratty pajamas, taking notes on elegant living as I go. Shhhh.) She seems to live a charmed life, and is one of those ladies I hope my daughter never meets because she would immediately disown me as a mother for my depressing-by-comparison lack of fancy-ness. And yet, this charmed and charming personage wrote recently in her great column for The Weeklings, “Do you ever feel wistful for a life you’ve never known?”

Cerand writes of her longing for a quiet life, far from the breathless glitter of Manhattan and the constant hustle of her freelancer/publicist lifestyle. "An enormous amount of dedication is required to patch together a living, and it occurred to me this week that there is a direct correlation with how long it’s been since I’ve taken a vacation and how long since I’ve dated anyone. Years, so many that sometimes it seems pointless to reach for a two-week break, or a person." She draws a startling, vivid connection with the feeling of skidding on an icy highway—out of control, terrified, moving too fast to stop.

Then, as wise women tend to, she quotes Mary Oliver: "Tell me, what is it you plan to do/with your one wild and precious life?" Aren't you doing it, Cerand asks of herself, of all of us? And if not, good gracious, why not?  Whether it's more quiet or more glitter, more time for contemplation or more nights out eating oysters and wearing pearls, leaving behind the job that's sucking you dry or embarking on a new project even though you know it will be demanding—when do you plan to start living that real life you keep meaning to begin?

As Cerand puts it:  "I must practice, with all the days that I have; I will improve the way I pass the time."

To which I say: Yes, yes, yes. And: now.

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Find Your Hopeful Place
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