Scale back your long hopes
to a short period.

While we speak, time is envious
and is
running away from us.

Seize the day,
trusting little in the future.

T he "Odes" by the Roman poet Horace

I went to sleep Sunday night, February 1st 2009, with what I anticipated to be a very busy week ahead. There were people to meet, appointments to keep and things to tick off my ‘To Do’ list. I’d prepared myself to hit the ground running first thing Monday and power into my week.

When I woke the next morning I pulled back my curtains and saw that it had snowed overnight. It was the heaviest snowfall in the UK for two decades. Everything was covered in a blanket of snow. The pavements, the roads, parked cars, trees, lampposts, you name it. The radio and television news reported that all public transport was affected and that people should stay home. My anticipated week ahead had been de-railed, literally.

I accepted that I wasn’t going anywhere when I realised that the people I was going to meet wouldn’t be there to meet me either. I then planned a different day from the one I’d envisaged. I went to the park quite early on where parents were starting to turn up with their kids, dogs that’d never experienced snow before were going nuts in it and large groups of people were really enjoying themselves. You could see the kids in the adults were coming out. Snow fights broke out between strangers, sledges with multiple people clambering on them came out and snowmen were being built. It was like getting the weekend extended at the last minute. It was magical.

After taking a few pictures I headed to the supermarket to stock up on food supplies for the coming days at home and was early there too. I had an unexpected 2 days off that I decided I would not fill with work. I really needed the time off and if it wasn’t for the intervention of nature I would have just soldiered on.

So, what am I really getting at?

The Latin phrase carpe diem originated in the "Odes," a long series of poems composed by the Roman poet Horace in 65 B.C.E., and is popularly translated to mean ‘Seize the Day’ reminds us to smell the roses every once in awhile. Why? Well work and our responsibilities will always be there, we unfortunately will not. Life if you’re not too careful can go by very quickly.

Seizing the day is about being alive to new opportunities as they present themselves to you. Sometimes when you’re a person who is driven by a personal project or just an adult with bills to pay being in the immediate present and alive to the randomness of life can be very hard to do. Yet being spontaneous is very necessary in changing times and situations.

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