-- Suzuki Roshi
We spend alot of life trying. Trying to achieve success, trying to overcome obstacles, trying to make money, trying to be happy, trying, trying, trying... Perhaps if we put less emphasis on trying, and more on just being, some of those things that we've tried so hard to make happen would just happen of their own accord. Or they wouldn't. And either way, it would be OK.
Just being alive has its own joys, its own rewards. There is both a wild exuberance and a calm centeredness that comes from accepting and enjoying the mere act of existence. Breathing, walking, sitting, smiling are appreciated like never before. As aliveness pulses through us, we know "enoughness," perhaps for the first time.
Today I received an email from a friend about the death of one of our high school classmates. I didn't know the guy well, and I probably hadn't seen him since high school, but his passing made me glad "just to be alive" all the more. You know, we are born with no agenda; there is nothing that we have to do while we're here. And yet, we miss the aliveness of so many days pursuing desires, running from fears, buckling under to shoulds and ought to's, being consumed by the minor little adminsitrivia of life.
Just for today, focus on merely being alive. Make today International Alive Day! Sure, do what you think you really have to do, but even as you're doing it, don't worry about the outcome, just experience being alive. Who knows? You may actually enjoy it, and start just being alive on a regular basis. Personally, I can think of no better way to live.
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