Today I stumbled across a book called "Dance While You Can; Gentle Reminders to Help You Live Life to the Fullest" in a lovely little Hallmark store. Being very open to methods of bettering my life and being fished out of the gutter, I cracked open the book and proceeded to flip through some of the pages which revealed optimistic, life-grasping carpe diem style quotations; though not only were quotations included, but also little true stories of peoples' lives which are slipping away or have slipped away. One went something like this:
As a teenager, I was dying to end highschool and start college.
In college I was dying to graduate and start a career.
During my career I was dying to have a family life instead of working seemingly all day everyday.
When I had kids I was dying to see them grow up with successful lives.
With the kids grown up and my job I still had, I was tired and dying to retire.
... at this point in the story, the author stated that after retirement, he was dying to live but he was dying. Life just slipped away. He had forgotten to live.
This really stuck to me and made me think. We're always in a rush. Rarely do people stop, and smell the fresh air from the tall trees. What kind of life is this? Keeping busy is great. But don't we lose sense of direction and reason for living throughout a haltless life? In a rushed and busy life, it seems we just want things to end because we can't wait for something to begin and it's a continuous pattern; so when are we truly happy? Life is about the journey, isn't it? Life is about the journey.
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