“Not how long, but how well you have lived is the main thing.” – Seneca
We live in a world that forgets to live. We get caught up in tasks, in metrics, in drama or politics, and we forget that life is meant to be lived. At some point, we trade life for something else, and though we may rationalize that decision, the thing we traded it for never satisfies us as much as we had hoped it might.
How did we come so far? How did we get to a point where we forgot to want to life? I ask myself this question sometimes…
When I was at my lowest, when I had forgotten what it meant to feel alive, I settled. Instead of desiring better, instead of believing that there was a better, I accepted it was my reality. I accepted the lackluster existence. I accepted that my spirit was dim. I accepted that I was not happy.
I thought that was “the real world.”
And then I realized…it doesn’t have to be.
It is so difficult to see and feel when you have lived in a state of lack for so long. I know. I did it.
I got to a point where a I couldn’t anymore. I couldn’t accept the feeling of numbness. I couldn’t participate in a world where nothing mattered. I didn’t know what I was searching for, nor how to get it, but I had to try.
So I did. I began trying to be more conscious. Instead of accepting the monotony of the day, I would pause and look up. I began noticing, and in noticing, appreciating.
Our lives are meant to be lived.
I do not know what that specifically means for you, but I imagine that you have an inkling.
Don’t settle for less. We are all born to live.