22 & not a clue

A balmy day that started with torrential rain and built into something similar to Southern Spain. Ice creams dripped and dogs panted whilst kids dipped dinky toes into Diana's memorial fountains.

Hiding from the sun in Hyde Park, a novel idea struck upon by hundreds of Londoners every lazy Saturday afternoon since the dawn of Londinium itself. We weren't unique.

Bunches of buddies and pools of pals broke bread and sunk ciders, celebrating 48 hours of 'well deserved' freedom - for don't we all work 5 days to live for 2?

Luxuriating on scratchy pieces of green making a patchwork of blankets smothering the lawn, each group from one to the next, the old, the young and the beautiful sagging into make-shift seats or folding into deck chairs.

Today we were young and golden, tomorrow we're back in the office.

Ever wonder what your life looks like standing on the outside looking in? Have you ever put your life in a glass box and really looked at it - you may see things in that box that make you wonder how they got there. Perspective is priceless, hard to come by and even harder to keep hold of - most often we're gifted it by a sharp slap from reality.

My perspective came on the wings of bad news. My friend died. He was 23, just graduated, in the prime of his life, a unique eccentric individual. We may not have spoken in 3 years, but we were friends. And he just died. No rhyme or reason, a phone call from another friend I haven't spoken to in years and then another and before I knew it I was 15 again remembering ridiculous bygone times.

I spent my sunday in 2008 and my Monday morning in 2009. Together in my memories we drank too much, giggled and pushed the boundaries all over again. The way we were always supposed to.

Back in the office and I realised I had been working towards the wrong goals for a while. I'd gotten away from the bigger picture.

You need to figure out what your bigger picture looks like, start by filling in the blue bits around the corner. Don't focus so much on the tricky part in the middle, when you step back it won't look like the picture on the box anymore anyway. Life is the messy bits and the lost pieces.

Perspective comes at a price, I hadn't realised that until now. You realise something which once was precious shouldn't be anymore. Step back from the puzzle and fill in the blue sky.