Every day is now! How you live it is up to you.
Have you ever had an ‘a ha’ moment and noticed for the first time something that you knew all along?
Here is one of those awarenesses for me…The first breath you take in life is when you are born. You in-spire, or inhale that first gulp of air. The last breath you take in life is when you expire, or breathe out for the final time. We seldom think about and appreciate all the breaths in between. It is a truly amazing design! Perhaps I have been pondering this more because my 63rd birthday is May 31st!
With ever glance in the mirror I realize and am astonished that I have a few more ‘smile lines’, cannot move as quickly, cannot lift what I could, or go as long and things definitely don’t look like they did 20 years ago! I
However, I do notice that the older I get I have more insights and patience, a deepened appreciation for each precious moment, and am grateful that my heart remains young as my body shows definite signs of ware from the journey. I feel fortunate that along the way I have been a witness to birth and death and have chosen as best I can to make friends with both. I welcome it all as an unfolding part of life and appreciate the wisdom that has expanded as a result of every vista, twist and turn.
I have learned to celebrate life all year round, although I am excited to celebrate in a special way our mutual May birthdays with my niece by going to a James Taylor concert. His music has been my companion since my hippie days, so I suppose you can say we have aged together.
Birthdays and aging have never scared me, however, I am aware that some people dread the thought of getting older and actively suppress, resist and hide their aging process rather than embrace the adventure of its inevitability. It takes far more energy to resist something, and miss out on so much joy.
Although we never really know how much time we have in this human form we tend to imagine life as a linear. We are born, live 80 years or so, and then die, and at some point we realize that the road ahead is likely to be shorter than the road already travelled. I have found that the older I get, the years seem to fall off the calendar more quickly. Curious. And so the questions I ask myself more often are, “Have I lived whole-heartedly? Have I done what I came here to do? Have I shown up and shined to the best of my ability and done what I felt called to do to make a meaningful difference?”
Even with a few glitches along the way my body has served me well and gotten me this far and my heart has always loved deep, dared to be vulnerable and hungered to create meaning. I have ridden motorcycles with Roy Roger’s kids when I was young and drove go-carts in the dessert. I have gotten far more sun burnt than I ever want to admit to my dermatologist. I have bungee jumped out of a hot air balloon, and I have dangled my toes over the lip of Half Dome. I nearly drowned body surfing and had a near-death experience as a result. I was with my mom when she passed. I weathered a divorce that was the worst and the best thing that ever happened to me. I have given birth to two amazing daughters and have been there or close when all four grandchildren arrived. I have jumped of a cliff into one of the Seven Sacred Pools, travelled several times to Europe, built forts and wrestled and played with my grandkids. I had the blessing to call Richard Carlson my friend and mentor.
I have made good and bad decisions that have taught me to be resilient and intuitive. I said YES when I should have said NO, seen many babies born, loved ones and friends die, have spent hours on the floor playing trains with my autistic grandson and spent a year with my grand-nephew as he maneuvered cancer. I savor my family, both genetic and chosen, and appreciate having followed my heart to live where my kids call ‘the edge of the earth’ with eagles and raccoons on a bluff in the northwest, and hopefully I have many more adventures to come.
But the truth is that we never know for sure our time-line, and so I choose to be as fully present as possible in each moment and as forgiving as possible when I forget. Although there is plenty more I would love to do, the true blessing is that I have no regrets. Good times and bad, I am so grateful to have the life I have. You might as well enjoy it, because no one gets out alive!
Greater happiness is yours when you surrender to what is, celebrate what you have for as long as you have it, make the most of both the dark and the light, accept loss when the time comes, share generously, live wholeheartedly in each precious moment, laugh often, love deeply, and dare greatly, focusing on what’s working rather than what’s not.
As my birthday gift to you, I invite you to contact me to create a COMPLIMENTARY Get To the Heart of What Matters Happiness review session. Taking a stand for your own happiness is the greatest gift you can give anyone. For those who mention this newsletter I am happy to also offer a free pdf copy of my book, Drive ourself Happy: A Motor-vational Manual for Maneuvering Through Life.
http://tinyurl.com/a5t9esw
Happy Birthday Every Day,
If you feel this newsletter would make the road of life a bit easier for another, please pass along. Invite all your family and friends to sign up for my newsletter by visiting http://www.centerofhappiness.com. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
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