Are you? Can you look at your day and say that for the most part you are absolutely loving what you are doing? If not...why not?
Unless you are walking through your life asleep you have to be reminded daily that life is fragile. This morning I read about two people who died yesterday. One person was a veteran Sea World trainer... Dawn Brancheau and the other was X-Games skier C.R. Johnson.
Both people died doing what they loved. She died working with a whale and he died when he fell while skiing. Maybe both lives dramatically different from yours or mine...but maybe not. They were both people who discovered what they loved and followed that passion. I am sure they had off days...but then maybe they didn't.
What I do know is that they were doing what they loved and so should we...each and every day. There are no guarantees on how long we have. Life is indeed fragile but it is also deep and wide and can hold many, many things. It's up to us to know what those things are...experiences, people...whatever we want to fill that space with and then work to have that in our lives.
I have changed how I view life over the past several years. When I was growing up I use to have a poster I took with me every where. It said, "It's better to wear out than rust out." I think I took that to an extreme..doing so much that the hamster running on the wheel next to me could not catch up to me!
It was about doing more and more and always saying yes and doing it because I could. And for some reason I felt because I could...I should not matter how I felt about it.
Then I was overwhelmed...I became the poster child for overwhelmed and post traumatic stress. Truly down for the count for a bit over 2 1/2 years...now after much processing and support ...and a good dose of divine intervention I am standing up again. And seeing life very differently.
Now it's about discovering what I love and absolutely being committed to doing it. It's about making sure that each day I spend more time in the pursuit and enjoyment of that life I want to live than in this other place I have been. Am I successful every day? Hell no! If it were that easy...we would all have figured it out long ago. But I tell you what...each day I am closer. And I recognize faster things that don't fit. And those things my dear friends are being "parked by the roadside and left behind".
I worked with people who had HIV/AIDS in the 80's and 90's. Back when people who were diagnosed didn't live very long. I will never forget sitting with a young man who was dying. He was in his 20's and we loved to just talk. I told him one afternoon that I was so sorry this had happened to him. He reached over and took my hand...looked me in the eyes and said, "I have lived a life full of passion. I have loved with great passion and did my work with passion. I followed my heart. Most people who live to be 80 can't say that."
He was right. He was at peace and I could see that in his eyes.
It is a wonderful way to be able to reflect on ones life. And it feels much better then reflecting on the inside of a hamster wheel.