Three very simple words…. LIVE – YOUR – LIFE. How often (if ever) have you thought about this? Not just as a collection of words, but also, what they really mean. Are you “living your life” versus living one day at a time, believing there will always be a tomorrow? Here is a quote from Pope Paul VI – “Somebody should tell us at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows.”  I would add to it, there may be no tomorrow. We have to realize that our lifetime is a mere blip on the timeline of eternity, just as our universe is a mere speck in the Milky Way galaxy. Most of us live in the moment…… of course, we do think about the future – but with a certainty that it will be there. You can only live your life “today, and right now”. For tomorrow, you may plan for it, although may never get to live it.

Let’s spend some time on the three simple words….

LIVE – Let us examine the difference between to LIVE and to EXIST. Most of us EXIST and thrive on a day-to-day basis. Few of us, actually LIVE every day. We have so many social bounds and acceptability norms surrounding us that we neglect savoring our lives. In a normal workweek, how many of us create/find the time in our lives to do something we truly enjoy and feel good about? “Living” has the lowest priority as we live through our daily chores.  We forget that the most important things in life are not things – but intangibles. This is what adds flavor to our lives, the feel-goods, and peace of mind. Most of us come to the realization at a later stage in our lives, as we view our lives in the rear view mirror – the different paths we could have/ should have taken, at the multiple crossroads of our lives. Again, like all decisions – we have to strike a balance between living and existing. We need to live for ourselves and exist to take care our families, and be there for them.

YOUR – The key word here is YOUR and not OUR. Feelings of selfishness and taking care of oneself …. Often delude us to replace YOUR with OUR. I understand this can get quite confusing when the OUR, includes near and dear ones, especially immediate family and children, spouses, etc. Again, this is where the balance comes into question. Just do not neglect to take care of yourself, as you consume yourself taking care of the OUR in your family. This is particularly true with MOMs, rather than DADs….. not being sexist here – just that MOMs DNA is wired differently and due to their nurturing nature, will be the first to give in to the OUR urge.

LIFE – means different things to different persons. My reference is to the work-life and work-school balance. We have to recognize this, and learn to strike a balance for ourselves and for our children. Most of us (including, your truly) are guilty of focusing on the “today” in our lives – thinking there will be a tomorrow for the other things we may want to do. There is a dichotomy, I would like to reference here. Health and Wealth. In our youth, we generally have the Health and often times may not have the Wealth, to truly “Live our Life”. We dismiss this as – Later, when I am done, achieving my professional and personal goals…. I will have the time to “Live my Life”. Living my Life ….. pretty much means doing everything I always wanted to do, but never found the time/money to do. As we slide into our golden years, most of us will have the Wealth and unfortunately, some of us may not have the Health to “Live our Life”. We may have drawn up a Bucket List – which may often result in an empty bucket.

In closing, I would like to quote Albert Einstein – “Live Life to the fullest. You have to color outside the lines once in a while, if you want to make your life a masterpiece.” Do not worry about being perfect all the time. Sometimes, it is the smudges of color in a child’s painting that truly makes it memorable – and earns its place on the family fridge.