I simply had to share this post that a photographer friend of mine shared on Facebook tonight. It left me speechless...at first. It is simply beautiful.
I am personally fighting a lot of battles on a lot of fronts right now, and I am not ashamed to admit that as tough as I believe I am...I feel like I am on my knees more lately than my feet. YET, if I boil it all down...life is meant to be lived. Now. We aren't promised tomorrow or an easy road...we are given the moment we are presently residing in. Period. This was/is a powerful reminder to seize those moments.
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." ~ Mark Twain
Don't wait. Live in this moment. NOW.
A dear friend of mine said to me recently, "I hope I have made the right decisions because if not, I have sacrificed everything for nothing." I sadly shook my head...because they had missed the whole point. The whole point.
I always say that life is not for the faint of heart. It demands everything from you, and when you give it...it comes back for more. Wanting.
I have made a lot of mistakes in my life, but I have never shirked from living a full life. I have changed course, at times taken a sharp left or right, and more often than I care to admit...I have gone backwards....but the one thing I always tried to do was LIVE with gusto....fearless. Living this way is getting more difficult. I feel myself becoming less fearless, and I hate it. If anything, I need to be brave now more than ever. We all do. This world is TOUGH.
We all have challenges. Disappointments. Moments when we question ourselves....sometimes everything. It is okay. Focus on living not regretting.
Only the love can you take with you...think about that. What are you focused on...loving? or something else...anything else?
A small digression...my "adopted" mother is by far the most loving, non-judgemental person I have ever met...Ever. I have seen her love and accept, in her loving home and loving arms, people of all walks of life, various religious beliefs, nationalities, people who have done her wrong, those I know she disagrees with on some level....BUT you would never, ever know it. She is as loving to anyone who walks through her front door as she is to any of her own children. It is by far the most beautiful lesson I have been able to learn from her, and frankly one I continue to fail at...my head down. Somewhere in her life she learned love, and while not perfect, she has lived a life that exudes love in all she does. In just a few years, she has taught me more about who I am and who I want to be than I could learn in another lifetime, if given to me. More than anything, and my point in mentioning it, is that she has taught me how to love and how I want to be loved. She has also taught me that what I do here and now matters. How I treat myself and others matters. How I give and receive love matters. Loving matters. I wonder if we don't need to talk about love more in our daily lives. I wonder if we don't need to show love more in our daily lives. Just wondering...
Love heals. Thanking God for that.
:)
Sunshine Dreams to You ~ Today and Every Day! :)