This blog is based upon a quote sent to me by a friend. I have taken the quote captive and written what follows.
Most of us are prone to the same fatal flaw. We keep waiting for life to begin … to kick in, in earnest. We are convinced in our own minds (which is the easiest place to be convinced!) that what we are experiencing now is “life backstage” and the real life we’ve always longed for is waiting for us as soon as the curtain parts. It’s like real life is somehow, in some mysterious way, awaiting us just ‘round the next bend in the road. We are waiting, it seems, for some corner to turn, for some moment to come, for some event to happen that will make everything different from what it has always been.
And so we convince ourselves that life will really begin after we get past this test or finish high school or university or when we get married, or after we have a baby, or perhaps have another. Then we are frustrated that the kids aren't old enough for us to be free of them for a few hours and we figure life will begin when they are old enough … it’s then that we’ll really begin to live.
After that we're frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We will certainly begin really living when they are out of the house and out of our hair. And so we go on and tell ourselves that our life will begin when our spouse gets his or her act together, or when we get that promotion or get that better job, or when we get a nicer car, or when we get that new house or that new furniture, or when are able to go on that dream vacation, or even when we retire.
Meanwhile, real life passes you by. It’s like the ol’ Bruce Springsteen “Better Days” when he wrote, “I’m just sittin' around waitin' for my life to begin, while it was all just slippin' away.”
So truth be told, there's no better time to begin living than right now. If not now, when? Your life will always be filled with things to wade through, challenges to struggle past, hurdles to climb over. It's best to admit this to yourself now and decide to live, now.
The famous marching band composer, Alfred Souza, once remarked, that "For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin – real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, some time still to be waited out, some debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were actually the content of my life."
So stop waiting until you finish school, until you go back to school, until you lose ten pounds, until you gain ten pounds. Stop waiting until you have kids, until your kids leave the house, until you start work, until you retire.
Stop waiting until you get married, or until you get remarried, or until Friday night, or until Monday morning. Stop waiting until you get a new car or new home, until old your car or your old home is paid off. Stop waiting until spring or summer, until fall or winter, until Christmas or New Years.
Stop waiting until the first or fifteenth, or until your song comes on the radio, or until your show is over, or until you've gotten over him or gotten over her. Don’t even wait until the turn of a day to decide to begin to live.
‘Cause what you are postponing is your life and you can postpone it until you die if you want. But know this: life is the journey, not the destination. And that journey is too magnificent and often too short, to postpone and miss altogether. So choose to live it, beginning now.
...just thinkling.
