Really Living
A co-worker at a previous university was a pilot. Two weeks ago he bought a new plane and crashed a few minutes after take off. He was sixty-one. Another co-worker, commenting on his age, said “He was just getting ready to really live.”
The phrase “really live” caught my attention.
Last Friday, after work, Julie and I went to a home show, browsed the exhibits and picked up an excellent booklet on rainwater harvesting. Later in the evening we went to an upscale restaurant for a romantic meal. It was a good day. I was really living.
On Saturday, I took a class at the community college entitled “Solar Applications”. This class gave me better vision for my version of sustainable living. Saturday evening we had coffee and watched some comedies. It was a good day. I was really living.
Yesterday, after a leisurely breakfast, I finished installing some conduit and a weather head on my utility building. After supper we took a walk, installed new reading lamps and baked cookies. It was a good day. I was really living.
I don’t want to wait until retirement to “really live”. I want it now! The wonderful thing about life is I can have it now. It’s all depends on my attitude and my daily choices.
Isn’t life wonderful!
The phrase “really live” caught my attention.
Last Friday, after work, Julie and I went to a home show, browsed the exhibits and picked up an excellent booklet on rainwater harvesting. Later in the evening we went to an upscale restaurant for a romantic meal. It was a good day. I was really living.
On Saturday, I took a class at the community college entitled “Solar Applications”. This class gave me better vision for my version of sustainable living. Saturday evening we had coffee and watched some comedies. It was a good day. I was really living.
Yesterday, after a leisurely breakfast, I finished installing some conduit and a weather head on my utility building. After supper we took a walk, installed new reading lamps and baked cookies. It was a good day. I was really living.
I don’t want to wait until retirement to “really live”. I want it now! The wonderful thing about life is I can have it now. It’s all depends on my attitude and my daily choices.
Isn’t life wonderful!
posted by Paul at 9:47 AM
10 Comments:
YES!!!
Sadiz asked on his blog awhile back, WHAT did you DO last time for the FIRST time?
I had quite the response... ;-)
*sadiq! my bad!
You wrote, "It’s all depends on my attitude and my daily choices." Maybe your attitude and daily choices, but not everyone's, Paul. You have a wonderful life, a wonderful job, and everything going for you now. Why should you retire. But that's not everybody's story. You remind me of what happened to Albert Scheitzer, as a little boy, when a peer, commenting on Albert's proud superiority said, "that's all right for you, Albert, you have gruel." Or me as a fourth grader. The teacher asked how many people bathed more than once a week; I sort of half heartedly raised my hand, but Laverne Travis, the Baptist preacher's daughter replied proudly, "I sometimes bath twice a day." That's all right for her, she had running (hot) water. We got our water out of the well, put wood in the stove and water in a kettle, heated it, put it in the washtub and bathed, and lucky were you if you got first bath.
The point, Paul, is that many people don't have a wonderful job (or life). They would like something better, but circumstances require them to hard labor, and they likely won't make retirement age.
Well excuse the sermon.
BTW I noticed your comment to Anonymous Julie's feb 13 post. It was very insightful and drew a heartfelt reply, so much so that I felt the necessity to jump in.
Thanks for being who you are, Paul.
Hm, Larry, true. Making the best of bad circumstances is better than not making the best of bad circumstances... but not as good as making the best of better circumstances. So for some, retirement represents a change to better circumstances, perhaps?
I'm thankful, Paul and Larry, to have found each of you.
I spent over an hour visiting with a trucker in a roadside diner. It seemed a whole lot like living.
"I don’t want to wait until retirement to “really live”. I want it now!"
Excellent!
Ah, yes, Paul, life is wonderful! So what, if in my case, it is also rather challenging? Even tho I feel sometimes I am living on the razor's edge, it's not sharp enough to cut me off from the wonderful breaths I still get to inhale. Even if sometimes it seems like the highlights of my life these days is reading about yours and others lives, it's still better than being so focused on survival I can't smell the ocassional rose I stumble across rather than stepping on it. Thank you for sharing your wonderful life, for without glimpses of it mine would not be quite so rich.
Yes, I think that life is what we make of it -- by the moment.
If you always do....
What you have always done....
You will always get.....
What you always got........
Change and that is really living
thank you for your comments on really living. Maby I'll add a few of mine.
Today I had a sick baby cream in my ears all day. That was not really living, but after his nap when he greeted me with a smile that was really living. When the family gathered to eat my brownies and have family prayer that was really living and when my autsitic child calmly set about doing homework tonight with my praises that was really living!
Thankyou for seeing the real living in our days!
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