“Carpe diem!” Or in plain English, “seize the day!” Life is short and every moment is precious. Each time I hear Horace’s immortal phrase, I am infused with energy. It is in perfect harmony with Sri Chinmoy’s philosophy: “To expedite your God-realisation-journey, you must take full advantage of every opportunity that knocks at your heart-door.” Recently, I was presented with a unique opportunity to seize the day and attempt a world record.
I love animals and get special joy incorporating them into my record attempts. One of my all time favorites was the record for the most jumps on a pogostick in a minute. And what made it so special was that I was holding a dog with one arm during the event! When Suki, my dog partner, and I performed the record, I was concerned that she might get uncomfortable. However, Suki was fine and seemed to thrive on all the TV cameras and attention. In fact, you might say she turned out to be a media hound!
For a long time now I’ve wanted to do a record with a bird perched on my shoulder. Fast forward to the Dominican Republic where I was on vacation this past December. The local zoo brought animals to the hotel beaches so tourists could pose with them while having their photos taken. One day they brought a monkey, another day a lizard and, on yet on another day, they brought an exquisite Macaw. About an hour after seeing the large parrot, it hit me. “Carpe diem!” Here was opportunity knocking at my door! I was already training for the record for the fastest time to walk a mile while hula hooping and I could attempt the record while balancing the Macaw on my shoulder! The trained bird was accustomed to sitting on strangers’ shoulders so-why not?!
I began thinking it through. The current record for the hula mile was 12 minutes and 15 seconds and, during my last practice, I came close to equaling the time. I thought it wise to take one or two practices with the bird to smooth out my style to insure that the parrot could maintain its balance. With plan in place, I went out hunting for the zoo keeper to find out what day the parrot was scheduled to make a return visit. After a long, fruitless search along the beach, I headed back to my hotel. But opportunity kept knocking! On my way back to my room, I spotted the zoo keeper, sporting the brilliant red Macaw on his arm!
It wasn’t easy trying to explain what I wanted to do with the bird especially since neither the zoo keeper nor the Macaw understood a word of English! However, I had a hula hoop with me and, when the man put the docile parrot on my shoulder, I was able to give a quick demonstration. The fellow was intrigued and agreed to bring his pet to the main road outside the hotel in one hour for a practice. Again, the flash… “carpe diem.” Who knew if I’d get another meeting with the bird? In the Caribbean there is always a possibility of a tropical storm rolling in and torrential rain lasting for days. I was due to fly home in a week. I would have to attempt the actual record in an hour and hope for a miracle!
I sprung into action. Luckily, since I had already done a record in the Dominican Republic, I had media contacts I could call. I also knew some guests in the hotel who had the credentials to be official witnesses and I knew a professional surveyor who could measure and mark out the mile course. And finally, I needed to round up a video crew and photographer to film the entire attempt. Incredibly, everything fell into place but, by the time I got to the starting line, I was a nervous wreck!
After a minute’s meditation, the timekeeper gave the signal to start and my photogenic companion and I took off. It was slow going at first, but we gradually began to pick up speed. The Macaw didn’t seem to be bothered by all the commotion and appeared to be happy as a – lark! Nevertheless, throughout the event I kept talking to my parrot pal, reassuring it that everything would be fine! (At a certain point, the Macaw spoke back to me and said, “I’m OK, just concentrate on what you’re doing.” No, just kidding!) At the halfway mark, we were slightly ahead of schedule. All we had to do was maintain our pace and not drop the hula hoop. Cars passed and I could hear shouts of encouragement, but I was too focused to even wave.
Going down the home stretch, we had to cross a speed bump in the road and, even though I was careful, my legs were weary and the hula hoop almost stopped spinning. I couldn’t believe it. We were so close to getting the record. I began praying and somehow recovered. We crossed the finish line and broke the record with time to spare! I was so grateful and I realized that “carpe diem” is really only the first step. Yes, you must seize the day but, once you have it, you also need a higher Grace in order to succeed. In fact, it would be accurate to say that I broke this record “on a wing and a prayer”!
