Sorry to have to change pace, but all of a sudden whoever it is that provides this service - and I know it is a service, well, they cut me off, insisting I return to aged efforts that I do not know how to delete, nor do I know how to overcome. Thanks for my loyal friend, Karen, I am here - and grateful for all of her assistance. Fortunately, I am here .
Yesterday, in my frustration, I realized I can write and send it via e-mails, but my filing system for such is woefully inadequate, so that won't work - for me.
I was prompted by an e-mail I had from my friend, Jeff Goins, who was reporting on a conversation he had with a writer friend of his, Shauna Niequist, who has her latest book - Savor, in distribution.
I love that word, a delightful word that is seldom used to describe life as it ought to be. The subtitle to her book states: Living Abundantly, Where you are, As you are. The caps on where and are were placed by me as I believe that if we really want to live, it starts with Where we are and As we are.
Some of you know that I celebrated my eighty-fifth birthday last August and I live accordingly. I am blessed in the truest sense of that word. It hasn't always been that way. For too long and too often, I spent my life - on Tomorrow Isle. Tomorrow, I'll do this or that. It never happened. Is it any wonder that one of our most despicable words ends with the letters,,, it!
Shauna obviously lives in the belief that she has proved an old axiom that I used to talk about, but never really applied to my life. Tomorrow becomes what we - all of us, earnestly plan to do, today. It may not be exactly as we might have planned, but it could become another step in that direction,
What I love about her book - without having read it, yet, is the word she has chosen to define life is as it ought to be, savored. To "savor" anything means to enjoy it unhurriedly.moment by moment, minute by minute. You can describe life as being savory when your moments are actually, appetizing, appealing, urging you on to do even more.
As a younger man, eager for the success I had observed in others, the "key" word was motivation. To be successful, you had to be properly motivated, where properly is the key word. We live in a society where others invest a few dollars every week, hoping, often praying, that they will win the prize of a lifetime - the lottery and yet, I have heard of winners who then, lose it all and wind up devastated, never realizing that the word success must start with the words "I will" or else it has no real meaning in the every day life we inherit at our birth. I have cousins by marriage who won two jackpots within ninety days of each other and while they appreciated their good fortune, it did not substantially change their lives. Unfortunately, the strength of his heart did not match up with the zeal he had for life and it was cut short,
We believe we are in charge and if we are fortunate enough to be raised in a home with two loving, appreciative parents, we may learn that we are no better off than the youngsters born to live in the streets, but who realize that just because his or her parents were not as prepared as others might have been, it was no reason for them to not take life seriously. The essential element that prepares us to become successful does not come through external appearances, but from an inborn drive that can propel us to do great things, to become known as great people, merely by embracing the opportunities that are everywhere to be found.
Unfortunately, many among us are urged to enjoy the lives we have created for ourselves, but they feel unknown, unwanted by those who come into and quickly leave their lives, or disappointed by the assumption that others are more fortunate. We cannot delve deeply into the lives of others, but the truth is that we can delve deeply into our own and most will discover that the one ingredient they miss is the lack of enjoying, savoring life as it is. The answer is to dispose of the false assumptions as easily as we find ourselves getting rid ourselves of the garbage we amass be merely attempting to feed our bodily structures.
I am indebted to those who invented mirrors and the others who placed them where we cannot avoid at least a glace or two, every day. We must learn to realize that the face we see in the mirror is little more than a reflection of our hearts. We cannot change the beat of our hearts, but we can change the way we approach the days of our lives.
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