We are always getting ready to live but never living.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
We spend so much time planning or drafting the life we want and prepping the moves that we will make once the conditions are just right. When we are not planning, we are waiting. Waiting for the right moment, the right sign, the right everything. Waiting to make it feel all alright.
Here is where the problem begins...
We chase desire so hard we forget to feel the ground beneath our feet. Sometimes, preparation isn’t necessary anymore.
Sometimes, it’s just time to let go and show up unprepared and not give a flying fuck. Time to embrace the present and enjoy the active process of noticing shit do stuff.
The present moment, that is the real work. That is where the joy is. We started living years ago, whether we knew it or not. The world keeps evolving, and we keep growing with it. The trick isn’t to grow old, it is to grow older.
So go dribble a basketball. Throw a ball against the wall. Sit on a bench and let your ice cream melt a bit and go reread a book you cracked open in your younger years.
Let the words meet your experience:
“Call me Ishmael.”
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
“Stay gold, Ponyboy.”
“Beware: for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.”
“And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”
Go back to those lines and feel them land again. The difference this time will be felt with a lifetime of experience. That’s how you’ll know you are making progress through this magical shitshow.
It is another new month, Chalkheads.
Go get the Gusto and feel the sun’s smile upon your brow.
