It feels like a mere breath ago that I was listening to “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” from the inside of a beautiful stone church in Johannesburg on Christmas Eve, following a dinner of “my cup runneth over” volumes of chilled white wine.  Since then, I survived, relatively simply, another uneventful Valentine’s Day, and now it seems we are racing towards Easter and the promise of a slight reprieve from the hustle and bustle of everyday frenetic life.

It is at these times, that one sits down to think about where one has been, or rather, where one is off to on this roller coaster commonly termed life.

I have, more times than I care to remember, been criticised for not falling into the conventional boxes of societal expectation.  I have pretty much broken every man-made rule thus far, and ones I have not broken, I have no doubt I will break at some point, with huge success.

One of my “escapes” in the quiet times is looking for quotes on Pinterest – mainly because I look for inspiration for my writing.  It seems I am often unable to come up with inspiration of my own, so I need help from other clever folk.  I found a saying which read “not all those who wander are lost” and it struck a chord with me immediately.

I was thinking about this, and pondering what to write, and how, when I decided to sit down, turn on the iPod and wish for inspiration.  The first song that played, quite by chance, was “I did it my way” by none other than Frank Sinatra.  Suddenly the second chord was struck.

I am a huge fan of individuals who possess a non-judgmental outlook towards life.  Very often, these individuals are, like me, free spirits, who like to wander, and not get tied down to conventional pressures and expectations - lovers of bigger picture, blue sky thinking.  When I hit the big 4-0, I made an active decision to stop judging myself with the same ferocious cruelty previously experienced, but rather, stop apologizing for who and what I am, and for having a mind and soul that likes to roam and wander, and in so doing, not get lost, but actually, be found.

And so it is that I find myself embarking on a multitude of career adventures that truly make me tick, and cater, quite literally, to my love of all things creative; and with that, comes an appreciation of all events that allow me to spend my days in cognitive freedom and blissful imagination.

You see, I am, like Frank Sinatra so aptly sang with that liquid gold voice, doing things my way, and I am too, wandering, but I am nowhere near lost.  I am steering by starlight, freedom, and a direct line straight to the ice, with a whole lot of white wine thrown liberally on top of it, in a cut crystal glass, of course.

So for all those who are lost, and all those who are found – my view is, if Frank Sinatra can do it his way, then so can we.