Wednesday, October 16, 2013

TO-DO OR NOT TO-DO LIST?

My bucket list is long......They say it's never too late, but of course it is------for all the things that waste your time, drain your energy, and make you feel anything less than fulfilled, content, and delightful. A story of a girl named Mickey who said she had 10 pounds to lose and had hardly left her room for weeks until she lost it, she was at a party celebrating and said now I can start living.....two days later she was killed in a traffic accident! As I ponder this story and think of it often I wonder what I would do if I was given a specific time limit to live....I can tell you I would not sit in a room waiting for my thighs to shrink! Life is brief and there is a lot we don't have time for.
Yes we can make alterations to our body....lose weight, gain weight, have doctors preform liposuction or remove a mole. The fact is we each get one body per lifetime, the one your in now is what your stuck with. I am finally at the point in my life where my life isn't about my body.  "For this one instant, I accept my body completely!"
There is a popular Zen saying: "Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.  After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water." Discover  life's purpose isn't some end goal, like keeping your closets and drawers organized or bake a perfect pie or weigh as much as you did in high school.  Our purpose  manifests in the way we orient ourselves to experience.   Living your life's purpose happens when you begin choosing the state of mind that feels the most fundamentally correct for you......bag the closets and drawers!  I hope I am not too late to stop feeling guilty about enjoying the simple things in my life...phoning friends, lunch with my girls, a good book, enjoying my favorite TV program or a game of Suduko! 
                  "I have found a kind of serenity, a new maturity.....I didn't feel better or stronger than anyone else but it   
seemed no longer important whether everyone loved me or not....more important now was for me to love them.  Feeling that way turns, your whole life around; living becomes the act of giving." (Beverly Sills)

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