Just to Be Alive

"Sometimes just to be alive is enough."

-- 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.

Say It, Just Say It!

"There are never enough 'I love you's."

-- Lenny Bruce

Never, ever, anytime, anyday enough. Nobody gets tired of hearing that they are loved. And many people hear it rarely, if at all.

I have a friend who once told me that during a particularly nasty fight his wife accused him of not having said "I love you" for at least ten years. "Is that true?" I asked him. "Probably," he said. "Amazing!" I said aloud. "It's easy for you, " he said. "You tell the waitress you love her after three beers! Any waitress!"

Guilty as charged. And the thing is, at that moment, I do. And while I tenaciously guard against becoming the drunk guy at the party who is putting all his buddies in headlocks and slobbering, "I love you, man," if I err in regards to love, it's by being pretty damn indiscriminate about it. Free love still sounds like a better deal to me than either free parking, free financing, or even the mythical free lunch.

But I'm not asking you to become me -- heave forbid! I'm just asking you to speak from the heart of the true you. And no matter who you are, where you are, the heart of the true you is always love.

So, say it loud, say it proud! Not just on Valentine's Day, but everyday. Not just to your partner or spouse, but to each and every person that tickles the inner cockles of your heart. Say it, just say it.

I love you.