Live the Life You Love

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Almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.  Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking that you have something to lose.  You are already naked.  There is no reason not to follow your heart.   Steve Jobs.

What I know is that if you do work that you love, and the work fulfills you, the rest will come.   Oprah Winfrey

My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.  Maya Angelou

Love what you do and do what you love.  Don’t listen to anyone else who tells you not to do it.  You do what you want, what you love.  Imagination should be the center of your life.   Ray Bradbury

Love the life you live.  Live the life you love.  Bob Marley

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones that you did do.  So throw off the bowlines.  Sail away from the safe harbor.  Catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore.  Dream.  Discover.  Mark Twain

Living This Life

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We believe in the eternality, the immortality, and the continuity of the individual soul, forever and ever expanding.  Ernest Holmes

In three words, I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.   Robert Frost

From where we stand, the rain seems random.  If we could stand somewhere else, we would see the order in it.  Tony Hillerman

In life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate.  Isaac Asimov

Our own life has to be our message.  Thich Nhat Hanh

I knew everything happened for a reason.  I just wished the reason would hurry up and make itself know.  Christina Lauren

Very little is needed to make a happy life.  It is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.  Marcus Aurelius

We’re all going to die.  We don’t get much say over how or when.  But we do get to decide how we’re going to live.  So do it.  Decide.  Is this the life you want to live?  Is this the person you want to love?  Is this the best you can be?  Can you be stronger?  Kinder?  More compassionate?  Decide.  Breathe in.  Breathe out.  And decide.  Dr. Richard Webber, Grey’s Anatomy, Season 10

No Rhyme or Reason

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I am moving closer to my goal of letting go and letting life because I don’t see any rational reason for recent occurrences.  The artist Prince died and there doesn’t seem to be an acceptable reason for his premature death, or for the passing on of many others who provided much joy, inspiration, and innovation to the world.  Prince was a genius, a philanthropist, and a supporter of just causes.  He didn’t seem to have any type of psychosis or mental issues.  He performed up to the time of his sudden death.  He was a good person.  Why did he leave this realm to which he so positively contributed?

Two days after Prince died, I went to the memorial service of an associate.  She lived a wonderful, spiritual, and giving life.  She was very well loved by everyone.  She appeared to have everything and lived “right.”  Why her?

I look at Steve Jobs.  All of his money, status, and technology couldn’t save his life.  Why?  Wouldn’t the world continue to benefit by his presence?  There are people who abuse their bodies and/or other people every single day.  Defying all odds and statistics, they live long and sometimes prosperous lives.  Sometimes, I think that Earth is hell and the ones left behind haven’t done whatever we’re supposed to do to make it out.  That theory doesn’t make sense, however, because many people are living joyful and fulfilled lives in this here and now.

I look at people whose lives I might have chosen for myself.  I think, “their lives are so great.”  Then I learn that they are going through life challenges that I couldn’t imagine bearing.  Maybe they lost their homes, loved ones, and every single thing they own in a fire, earthquake, tornado, landslide or war.

Some people have financial abundance, but undergo health challenges.  I have to accept that I don’t know why things happen.  There doesn’t seem to be anything that one can do to avoid suffering.  You can be this great wonderful person who everybody loves.  You can be a genius.  You can be a zillionaire and still have insecurities and childhood issues that you can’t seem to resolve.

I’ve been around long enough to see that there isn’t a simple explanation.  There isn’t an answer that says if you do “this,” you will have an absolutely perfect, pain free, and struggle free life.

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No to Drama

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Whatever we choose to focus on is what we will see manifested in our lives. Joel Osteen

Drama does not just walk into our lives.  Either we create it, invite it, or associate with it.  Brandi L. Bates

So many people prefer to live in drama because it’s comfortable.  It’s like someone staying in a bad marriage or relationship.  It’s actually easier to stay because they know what to expect every day, versus leaving and not knowing what to expect.  Ellen DeGeneres

You can’t be in the middle of picking yourself up and pick somebody else up at the same time.  Alyssa Mayer

Never let life impede on your ability to manifest your dreams.  Dig deeper into your dreams and deeper into yourself and believe that anything is possible, and make it happen.  Corin Nemec

For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?”  And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.  Steve Jobs.

They Live in You

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There’s no mountain too great

Hear these words and have faith

Have faith

They live in you

They live in me

They’re watching over

Everything we see

In every creature

In every star

Into the water

Into the truth

In your reflection

They live in you

Samuel E. Wright and The Lion King Ensemble

People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.  Edmund Burke

In many ways, each of us is the sum total of what our ancestors were.  The virtues they had may be our virtues, their strengths our strengths, and, in a way, their challenges could be our challenges.   James E. Faust

I was born by myself, but carry the spirit and blood of my father, mother, and my ancestors.  So, I am really never alone.  My identity is through that line.   Ziggy Marley

Come Alive!

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Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.  Howard Thurman

The soul is the source of our joy, truth, beauty, and infinite potential. When we live from this level of life, we are immediately connected to and supported by other souls. We heal and are healed in return.  Oprah Winfrey / Deepak Chopra

The truth is, you don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.  Life is a crazy ride and nothing is guaranteed.  Eminem

Don’t be afraid of death; be afraid of an unlived life.  You don’t have to live forever; you just have to live.  Natalie Babbitt

Slow down and everything that you are chasing will come around and catch you.  John de Paula

Finite Thought, Infinite Existence

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For the first time I noticed – as I would notice repeatedly during my ordeal, between one throe of agony and the next – that my suffering was taking place in a grand setting.  I saw my suffering for what it was, finite and insignificant, and I was still.  My suffering did not fit anywhere, I realized.  And I could accept this.  It was all right. (It was daylight that brought my protest: “No! No! No! My suffering does matter.  I want to live!  I can’t help but mix my life with that of the universe.  Life is a peephole, a single tiny entry onto a vastness – how can I not dwell on this brief, cramped view I have of things?  This peephole is all I’ve got!”).  I mumbled words of Muslim prayer and went back to sleep.   Yann Martel, Life of Pi

[H]igh in the firmament where soul material gathers and plays out all the dreams and joys of which we temporal beings can barely conceive, [there are] all the things that are beyond our comprehension; but, even so, are not beyond our attainment if we choose to attain them, and believe that we truly can.  Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

ONE VOICE

From the album “Never Say Never” by Brandy

I had a dream, a crazy vision

It may sound strange, this intuition

But it was true beyond description

And somehow I knew that it was real

When I saw

One sky above

There is just one source of love

If I got one chance, one choice

I’ll sing it from the heart, one song, one voice 

I’ve seen the fires of deep division

The hearts of stone, the cold ambition

But I have found my sacred mission

To live in this world and still believe

That there is

One sky above

There is just one source of love

If I got one chance, one choice

I’ll sing it from the heart, one song, one voice

LIVE A FULL LIFE

My friend was contemplating whether to go on a weekend trip.  She has lived a very conservative life and is trying to break out of her boundaries.  She has not done anything  that was unplanned and about which the result was uncertain.  We had a very interesting discussion.  She said that her mother has lived a very full life, has traveled internationally, and had many wonderful experiences.  My friend said that she didn’t want to have regrets about what she hadn’t done.

I told her that I have lived like her mother; but, in the totality of my life thus far, intense joy has been matched by intense pain.  I wasn’t wishing her pain or trying to say that my experience is one that all must enjoy and endure.  The essence of what I tried to communicate was that, if you live a full life and explore unknown paths, you’re bound to make mistakes and suffer the consequences of those mistakes.  Looking back, I probably wouldn’t even classify them as mistakes.  I would catalog them as “paths taken that didn’t end where I thought they would.”

My friend said that there was also a suffering that comes from not exploring.  I said yes.  So since either way you suffer, you might as well get hurt doing whatever the heck you want to do.