Sometimes I press pause internally. I stop what I have been thinking about for a moment or two (I struggle to do this for too long, my brain is a tumble drier) and I just watch. I watch the people around me in the street, on the bus and at the grocery store. I watch them scoop up their children and I watch them peel the bills from their wallet and place them on the dirty counter tops. I look at their eyes and I think this thought: “But, are you REALLY living?”
The thought comes with a dash of arrogance because who are we to judge another’s life? Who are we to say one is living and another is dying? We aren’t really, but at the same time I reckon many of us have stopped living. Life is hard, complex and disheartening at times. I get it. We all do. We’re all living on the same planet, and yet within me there is a little spark which says. “It is hard, but it can also be incredible.”
Sometimes, you must quit the life you hate to start living the one you love.
I’m a firm believer in a God who talks to you. Whether or not you believe in God, is your choice, but this aside you must admit that life sends you messages. The time your car broke down and your friend drove down the street and was able to assist. The teacher who spoke words into your heart which shaped something powerful inside you. The closed doors and the open ones which lead you left, or right. Up, or down. Listen.
We are privileged to live in a world where we are able to make our own decisions. We can make our way through life with minimal opposition. Want to become a teacher? You can. Want to teach in Uganda? You can. Want to teach adults in Spain? You probably can. Why in a world like this would you do something you hate? What would cause you live somewhere you detest? Or why would you chose a partner who doesn’t treat you well?
I’m refuse to adhere to the ‘do something I hate for 10 years, make enough money and then enjoy life’ movement. I refuse to adhere to the ‘let’s just do’ movements. House. Car. Babies. Schools. I want to do what’s right for me, and I want to do something which makes the world a better place.
Why is this so hard for us, why do we refuse to follow our dreams? We’re afraid.
“You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be. And one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls you to stand up for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause.
And you refuse to do it because you are afraid. You refuse to do it because you want to live longer. You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab you, or shoot at you or bomb your house; so you refuse to take the stand.
Well, you may go on and live until you are 90, but you’re just as dead at 38 as you would be at 90. And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
You aren’t doing anybody a favour when you stop living. When you do what you love, you shine. When you find your purpose something inside you sparks, grows, is kindled and gives light.
I don’t want anyone to look at my life and see me lifeless, sad or depressed. I want people to look at my life and think, that girl has got something. She loves what she does. She loves the people in her life with every fibre of her being. She loves God and she listens to him. That’s truly inspirational to me.
What would you do if someone gave you 6 million dollars? Who would you be if you weren’t afraid of what people thought? What would you try? Where would you go?
Go for life, go for it full steam ahead. LIVE. Truly live.