Back In The High Life Again

Champagne is one of those simple, sensational, celebratory things that once it’s opened, demands to be shared, enjoyed and completely consumed because it doesn’t save…a lot like life.

We keep a bottle of good champagne chilled and ready in the fridge, because anything is possible. Oh, there have been times we couldn't really afford it. Times I wondered if we'd ever open it. And times I just wanted to pop the cork to drown my sorrows. But eventually, they’ve all been opened. And all for marvelous reasons.

This started, one night several years ago, in my little local grocery store. Life as of late, had been pretty crummy to say the least and on top of that, we had no money. We were living on a budget stitched together by borrowed time and barely treading water. And as I pushed my cart past all of the stuff we couldn’t have and dropped in all of the things I didn’t want but needed to get through the week, although I was grateful for what little I was able to put in, it began to feel like we were never going to get out of this. A sense of hopelessness suddenly slithered over me with a depressing pain of permanency. And then, Steve Winwood’s BACK IN THE HIGH LIFE AGAIN started playing over the PA system.

“And we'll drink and dance with one hand free

And have the world so easily

And oh we'll be a sight to see

Back in the high life again”

We will! Yes we will! You bet your ass we will!!! This was more than I could take and I needed something tangible. Something to help me see myself celebrating someday, today!

I frantically put a bunch of stuff back, knowing full well I would have to stretch through the rest of the month and got good champagne instead.  And it sat in the fridge, right where I could see it, every day, for what felt like forever.

But I've never had champagne taste so good.

So the current bottle sits there on my shelf as a chilled, effervescent symbol of hope knowing full well, there will come a day, when we will open it. I look forward to finding out why we'll open this one. Because anything is possible.

And if I don’t get to see that day, they’ll raise a glass at my funeral. To a life that was simple and sensational and overflowing with celebrated moments and shared and enjoyed and completely consumed because it wouldn’t save…just like champagne.

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