Walking home from the shops today, I suddenly became aware that I was alive and had some purpose for being so . I know this may sound strange, how could I not know I was alive? But it’s not really a strange statement, as the majority of people spend their life in a dream like state of going through the robotic motions of each day. When we live life in this manner we tend to forget the miracle of it and that we actually came here with a specific purpose in mind.
Every now and then I will feel a momentary flash of sudden panic. It’s like I have just woken up and discovered that I am a spirit having a human experience. I’ll look around me and think “How the hell did we all get here? Where did I come from and why am I here?” It’s as if the Universe is poking me to wake up and remember the life I came here to live.
Today was one of those moments. I was enjoying the freedom of no job and living my life how I desire to, when I thought about the other side of reality spent working every day to ….. for what? I suddenly woke up and thought what the hell? This is what we came here choosing to do. Spend our lives busting our butts for thirty odd years, not truly living the way we want to, spending time away from our families and foregoing our dreams so we can be a slave to someone else’s. Is this what we call living? Why on Earth would we choose to come here and life this life? Who in their right mind would choose that?
The more I thought about it the more absurd the idea became. How many people do you know who truly love what they do and are passionate about their life? Sadly, so few of us. The majority of people go through their life never living up to their potential or fulfilling their purpose. Sadness and frustration often being the emotion felt most. I can’t see the point in life if it is to be lived like this. That is when you hear me shouting “Stop the world I want to get off!”
I saw a quote outside a cafe in Wilmington yesterday by Mark Twain which read
“When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.”
I think today was a moment for me when I realized we are all mad. I think we all got it wrong on arrival on this great planet. In coming here to live, we all somehow forgot how to live.
And that leads me once again down the thought path of travel and why I love it so. When I travel I am totally living in the moment of now. The present. The only place where life exists. And within that moment of now comes the ability to enjoy everything. My eyes open up to the wonders of life. Even through the challenges that appear in the now, I can see what is so great about them and how to work through them in order to learn and grow.
I find when I return to an undesired “reality”, I get stuck in the problems of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. And in getting stuck outside of now I can’t find the way to adequately deal with life. Within the ‘stuckness’ comes the loss of joy, awe, wonder and gratitude. It is when I am traveling that I remember why I chose to have this human experience- to live a full expression of life .
Life has been waking me up more lately to embrace it once again.