Live Your Life Before It's Illegal!!!

I've said it before and I will say it again and again, life is for living! When my time comes I don't want to be haunted by a list of things I wish I would've done, I want to slide into home plate screaming "Holy Shit What A Ride!"

What is living?

Is it simply breathing, waking up everyday, grinding the same grind? Nope, that is surviving, there is a very real difference. Now that may be some people's definition of living, to me that's more of maintaining/surviving. I've seen it often in my life, people get so used to their routine that it just becomes their safe space. When you get in that mindset a trip to the grocery store can seem like an adventure. "Wahoo a coupon!" isn't an adventure. Then bam after years of maintaining/surviving, it all changes. What do we do? What's going on? The routine is different, everyone panic! Who can we blame for this? When it comes to blame, know the story before you latch onto an idea. Now you can think of it as a train wreck, catastrophe, upending everything you thought you knew, or you can think of it as a way to break the cycle and find your own way to live life and enjoy it. Endings are also beginnings, it just matters how you look at it.

I've been in that scenario so many times it would make most people's head spin. Yeah sure it initially sucks and it will, but then you can start to realize what you could do. You can write the next chapter of your life in your terms, which is way better than reading the same chapter over and over and over again, wondering why nothing changes. All of a sudden things you couldn't do before are now an option, heck everything is an option. One thing to make sure of is don't replace a taxing routine with another taxing routine. Routines are great....if you are a robot. 6:12 am - wake up, 6:56 am - leave for work, 7:30am - 4:30pm - work, 4:45pm - dinner, 5:00pm - clean up. 5:15-5:45pm - free time, 5:45pm to 7:00pm - stare blankly at tv, 7:00pm-6:12am - quiet time and sleep, and then repeat. Someone please tell me how that is living?!?!?! To me that sounds like walking on eggshells, broken glass, and thumbtacks, all while walking under a ladder as a black cat cuts in front of you. Heck you may as well break a mirror for good measure. Routines are fine but never get lost in them. If your version of happy living is walking on eggshells and having to raise your hand to do anything, in my opinion, you need to reassess your idea of happy.

Me personally, the only routine thing I do is work. The reason I work so hard is to pay for the things that make living worth it. Take into account that I am just me so I have pretty much undivided freedom. Take last night for example, I finished up in my shop, headed to the house and ended up having a very impromptu conversation with a very opinionated squirrel. That's just the cusp of my random. I try to make the best out of most situations, live the best way I can, and try to be a light in the eyes of some. I really love how random life can be. I've been known to wake up, say nope to work, and just have a random road trip to wherever I want. One time I just decided to drive to Grand Rapids for lunch and pretty much turned around and came back. Different routes each way, few stops at random thrift stores along the way.

I feel like I got a bit distracted there, weird.

Few key takeaways to life and living;

If you have the chance to live your life the way you want to live it, do it.

Don't waste time thinking about how the way things were, were is past tense,

Be random, be goofy, have fun, talk to squirrels, and open your eyes to the fact life is made for living.

If you think something is bad, find the good and latch onto it.

Don't fear living, fear going through life without living.

Endings are also beginnings, read that again, and again, and again.

Routines are good but don't get lost in them.

Never lose track of what makes you great, you have a light, shine it!

You can't take care of anything else if you don't take care of you, the world needs you.

Never, ever, ever let someone tell you that you are living your life wrong, it's your life not theirs.

Living is easy, don't overcomplicate it.

In the end, life is for living, so live it. Sing, dance, laugh, and then laugh some more. Create the best version of you and living is easy.

-Peace and Happy Living!