I have an important question. How would you spend your best day ever?

This might sound like a dumb question. But if you have time, take a brief break from doom scrolling and think about your best day ever (BDE).

What would you do on this particular day? Where would you go? What would you wear? And most importantly, what would you eat?

Don’t laugh. Food is sacred. Is there a gift more precious than the taste of real, wholesome food? Is there any joy more humanly gratifying than unrefined flavors of fat, salt, and sugar?

You could be the richest, most powerful sultan on Planet Earth, with entire nations under your control, a harem of lovers who all look like professional underwear models, and a giant trampoline in your living room. But if you had no tastebuds, if everything you ate tasted like No. 9 Styrofoam… Your whole life would suck.

Who would be with you on your BDE? Why would you choose this person? Would it even BE a person? Or would it be a canine? Feline? Ferret? Goldfish? Rare form of exotic algae?

If it WERE a human you chose, however, why them? How does this person make you feel? Do you love them? Where do those feelings come from? Have you ever wondered about this?

You cannot necessarily “choose” your feelings about a person. You simply feel how you feel. You either feel one way or you don’t. It’s a decision your soul makes, not your brain.

Ah, the soul.

There’s that word. A dangerous word, so laced with divisive religious overtones that people dare not talk about it. Thus, society just ignores the issue of a soul altogether.

But you cannot ignore your soul. It’s the true You.

Which is why there are some humans in this life who give your soul an overwhelming sense of unconditional love, joy, and kinship. Whereas others give your soul the overwhelming desire to run into traffic.

Which leads me to my next question:

Who would you NOT bring on your BDE? And why?

How would this person disrupt your experience? Are they toxic? Are they selfish? Do they bring out bad traits within you? Do they make you competitive? Negative? Combative? Argumentative? And all the other “-ive” words?

Likewise, what other things does this perfect day NOT include? A job you can’t stand. Obligations you wish you didn’t have?

Does your happy day include 24-hour news channels? Or technological devices which promise more connection, but somehow make you feel less connected than ever?

And here’s my most important question:

How do you feel on your BDE? What is the overwhelming sensation you’re imagining?

Is it peace? Is it less fear? Simplicity? Joy? Is it the total-body feeling of no worry, no anxiety, no friction whatsoever? Good health? Approval? Validation? Acceptance? Freedom from commitments?

Or is it just plain, old-fashioned love? As in the gladness of giving love to another, and more importantly, the rapture of BEING loved without expectation?

As you think about these things, let me tell you a story.

Once upon a time, a middle-aged, redheaded writer with a big nose was recently visiting a nursing home. He was talking to an elderly woman. She was very sick, and wasting away. She asked him these important questions.

When their conversation finished, the large-snouted man realized that his answers had described all the things he considered important in life.

Then, it occurred to him how easily he had lost sight of these things. And worse, he realized how little time he spent engaging in these things.

Whereupon the old woman just patted his hand and said, “The trouble is, you think you have time.”

Make today your BDE.