Advice from a Higher Power

Wow, I mean wow! I just heard and met Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street, read several short stories to a warm, receptive audience of high schoolers, parents throughout the community, and others. She was so real and so approachable. She stood at the podium wearing a lime green Mexican muu muu dress adorned with colorful embroidery, and delivered her goods with a soft, sweet voice like honey dripping from a spoon. Long, thick, black hair that parted in the middle and hung down her back, and so shiny she looked like a modern day Breck girl. She spoke with her soul and could've offered me dirtballs from the palm of her hand and I would've believed they were diamonds already cut and polished. She was that good. There was one part, however, where she read about her lost cat; and boy did she get long winded. Went on for days.......but she still had me hanging on every word and remembering the days of being read to by my own mother. I didn't want the experience to end. Then she started taking questions from the audience and someone asked her what her advice to young people would be. Even though this patron, fan....whatever you want to call her in the literary world..... was a shadowy silhouette in a dark auditorium, she couldn't have shone any brighter. The answer rolled off Sandra's tongue as if it were practiced and prepared. And her advice was quite clear. Sandra spoke to all the young ladies of the South, and the rest of the world, and said: Be economically independent, ladies. Do not depend on anyone to bring you a paycheck or your happiness. Delay marriage for as long as you possibly can; and delay children for even longer. She didn't mean this in a bad way like some hard core butch lesbian avenger at a Pride parade swearing off men for their evil ways. She reiterated the fact that when you settle down you are taking time away from you to get to know yourself and fall in love with life and living through adult eyes because once the ninos come, well.......ya know......your life is never again your own. Never, ever, ever again. You have traded in freedom, travel, easy living, and TV dinners for little league, gas sucking SUV's, a permanent place on the PTA, and worry 24/7.
Girls, I sure hope ya'll were listening. Glean the knowledge and hear her advice. Life is nothing to rush; everything will unfurl in due time just like that budding leaf in the spring. It may sound cliche, but you need to take time to smell the roses and linger a little longer while doing so. Stay forever young in spirit and absorb and learn and grow. Don't be afraid of the road less traveled, for your fate will be your ultimate destination. Okay?
Enough of dishin' the dirt. Just thought I'd share...........