It has been a couple of weeks since a fire ravaged the iconic Notre Dame in Paris. I cannot even imagine what is going through the mind of those who live in Paris and this amazing cathedral is not only something that contains historic significance, but also captures a spirit of people that saw it as a symbol of Parisian heritage. Completed in the 1,200’s, it has stood watch over so much history and has withstood it with resiliency.

And it is a place that I blew off as a 19 year old visiting Paris.

I was in college. I was on a music group tour with an all men’s choir throughout Great Britain, Ireland and France during the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of college. To be fair, it was the last leg of the tour that we found ourselves in Paris. Like many college-aged guys, I wasn’t focused on getting good sleep each night. We would travel by bus to our convert location, set-up, perform, sleep and then get up the next day to do it all over again. It is the sleep part of the equation that I wasn’t very good at. After the concert was time to hang out with all my college friends…

We had arrived in Paris and I had set my heart on one thing: Get a photo in front of the Eiffel Tower. Everything else was not really on the list of my “sites to see in Paris.” As we were driving around Paris, our bus turned the corner and there was Notre Dame Cathedral. It was majestic, but after getting my photo at the Eiffel Tour, I had cozied up to a nap. So I literally took my camera, snapped a photo out of the bus window and went back to sleep. I didn’t get off the bus. I blew off seeing Notre Dame because I reasoned with myself that I would see it the next time I was in Paris.

Turns out there hasn’t been a next time since my college days over 30 years ago, and now that “next time” won’t happen. I get it that they will rebuild, but it won’t be the same in my mind. There was a moment in my youth that I could have seized the opportunity to wake up, even though I was tired, and capture a moment that I could look back on for years to come.

I chose to sleep.

The lesson I was reminded of while I watch horrified as Notre Dame burned is to not put off to tomorrow what I have the opportunity to see and experience today. I have worked hard in my travels since college to not pass up opportunities like that. I have been more intentional about not taking for granted that I will have the opportunity to go back “some day.”

Some day for me is today. In my travel, in my family and marriage, in my work, in my hiking, in my writing…I am so much more focused on the today kore than I am about the some day. I hope this simple blog will encourage and motivate you to take two action steps:

1. Where is it that you want to go/see that you’ve been putting off for “some day?”

2. What’s one step you can take today to make “some day” look more like tomorrow?

I blew off Notre Dame and I learned my lesson. I hope you choose today to give a date to your “some day.” Don’t blow it off…

One final motivational thought…

I’m working on a free course that I will be launching about identifying fear in our lives and making decisions to not allow fear to keep us from doing the things we have always wanted to do. The course is called “Opt Out of Fear” and will be launching in June, 2019.

Maybe it is fear that’s keeping you from traveling and seeing the world. Maybe this free course will help you make a decision to actually begin giving yourself permission to live.

Stay tuned…