“Life”… is what is actually happening … while we wait for moments that never come” …

So… Tell me about your life…

Where would you begin? Where would your mate? Where would your parents? Where would your friends?

I would like to think that I have a general idea as to where those closest to me would begin…

Sadly, I think several of my friends would start out with an overly glamorized description of their twentieth century invention called a “career” . . .

The well adjusted, “fully aware of the human condition” friends of course would start out with some profound statement of being…

I think some would start out with the “funeral” style description of a life...Here lay so and so, son of so and so...whether tragedy or triumph he did this, then came that, etc… I do not debate that family is tantamount to life, and family may very well be what will define you… so I’m not saying the funeral style description of a life is wrong, rather that is just a possible style to describe one’s life…

Author Anne Lamont tells a great story in her book “Grace Eventually” wherein she tells of an evening she spent with some mentally challenged adults. She participated as a “helper” at a dance which the group of adults held… Anne enjoyed herself, danced and laughed and all while also performing her “helper’ duties… At the end of the evening, an administrator of sorts gathered the adults to thank all of the helpers. One of the adults exuberantly exclaimed that they were all very fond of one particular helper, as she was … a helper… and she danced …

Anne Lamont goes on to say that she wants those words etched on her tombstone, I have to agree that would be high enough praise for me… I too strive to be a helper, and to dance…

The quote with which I started from best I can tell is my own thought… I know it’s very subject to interpretation and debate… The most obvious point of debate being the notion of “waiting” and more specifically the “moments that never come” … As much as I enjoy thinking and discussing love based logics vs. fear based logics, … I feel that this quote pulls from fear alone, maybe different aspects of fear, maybe fear that isn’t without reason or purpoe, but I think they are all fear based nevertheless…

Lets start with a person who is certain that great things will happen for them, but the moments… never come, inevitably this person will be left disappointed, hurt, broken down and full of despair ? ? ? (Faith)

Now let’s think of a person that fears horrible things will happen for them and lurk around every corner of life... This person spends their life afraid, never really living, one foot out the door, full of terror and doubt… ? ? ? (Pragmatism)

Then again, there is also the word “actually”… that brings to mind that maybe we are all missing out on something, as Life is actually happening while we are all waiting… waiting for what is irrelevant as I’m fairly sure at some point in time we’ve all wished or waited our life away for not… what are we waiting on ? ? ?

Thinking about this world and its finiteness in relation to time drive me crazy sometimes… I’m pushing myself more and more to embrace the things in this world that aren’t bound by time and are truly infinite…

Love can and will live forever, I believe that in my heart, soul and bones…

Kindness, generosity and the process of at least trying to become selfless… I believe will also ring out for all time and well beyond this world…

I don’t have anything other than a hope that I can embrace my life and the things I love daily. That I’m involved and engaged in the things that surround me. That I reach out daily for the things I care about the most with both arms… For I know faith and love have found me, and faith and love have set me free.

In as far as the waiting is concerned, I think the mixture of faith and pragmatism is what is most often lived out… but I think we cling to the “practical” too much and too often…

I make a daily effort to be much more rooted in love and faith than in pragmatic thought… I wasted many years of my life being solely practical, years that I will not get back…

I think the best choice we can make is to live a life that celebrates love and faith as a conscious choice. The moments in which a breath of pragmatism is drawn will come for certain… don’t dwell or wait on them for too long… that’s just my opinion.

Tune choice of the day:
“Loves You The Most”
Brett Dennen