Reflections on the puddle of life
A Plea for Passion
by , 01-04-2009 at 07:32 AM (1577 Views)
I’m not the kind to make resolutions; I don’t even believe in celebrating New Year, it’s just another day no different to the one before. For some reason it is a time when people reflect on the past and think about the future: the changes they will make, the weight they will lose, the money they will make. I come here now to make a plea to you: if you bring nothing else to your life in 2009 at least live it with passion. I don’t mean anger, that kind of passion is given too freely and too often, or disgust at the vagaries of your fellow man. I mean PASSION: an irrepressible JOY at the wonder of existence, YOUR existence, the body that sustains you, the earth that protects you, the others around you with their unique minds, unique visions, their bodies: so amazing, so capable of bringing pleasure, excitement, joy. There is nothing like the joy one person can give to another.
I ask you to consider your safe life. Yes, it is good to be safe but what is your balance between safety and danger, fear and joy? We spend so much time working, striving, doing the ‘right’ thing, living in fear of that black door somewhere in the distance of our future, and it’s getting closer and each day spent in fear of it is a day without living. Existing and living are not the same thing. To counter the boredom of existing we acquire things, but those things are no substitute for living and the more we acquire the more we are owned by our things.
I say: cast them off!
Push yourself, step outside your comfort zone. Remember to feel, feel everything. Strip aside convention, the chains that force you to shrink away from your own skin, cutting yourself off from the outside world.
Laugh uproariously.
Howl at the moon. Jump into to the ocean and feel the crisp of the cold, salt water stinging your skin. There are no sharks, no stinging jellyfish, nothing but your own fear to prevent you. Wake early, climb the closest hill and watch the stars fade into sunrise, feel the cold air warming, your breath spilling in and out of your body in glorious rhythm with the rising sun. Spend a night in the open as the Earth moves through the stars. Be naked, outside, feel the warm breath of the wind sift through your hair, your skin grown hard and dull through a lifetime of covering. It feels good to be vulnerable, exposed. Taste water from a mountain spring, berries picked straight from the tree. Smell the air, how it differs in the country to the city. Listen to the robin sing, a unique song it sings only once and you’re privileged to hear it. Jump in puddles, walk on the top of walls, climb a tree. Shout about frailty and beauty.
Touch people, they won’t burn you. Wrap your fingers in someone else’s fingers and feel their pulse beat through their hands into yours. Tell someone you love them: your partner, your children, your parents, a friend, yourself. Give a flower to a stranger. Give them your smile. Write a poem about someone you see and give it to them. Hug someone: feel their warmth, their humanity, the strength and frailty of their body, smell their unique smell. Help someone. Listen. Say please, say thank you, say How do you do?. Be kind. Trust someone. Talk. Make love, wildly.
Do something dangerous. Ride your bike without a helmetwalk in the road, run outside in a storm and dodge the lightning. Get soaked. Hang-glide. Swing through the trees. Climb a mountain (or a big hill), roll down it. Fall over. Behave strangely on public transport. Drive a fast car. Ride a rollercoaster. Watch a scary movie. Can you feel your heart beating? Believe in something. Miss a bill or two.
Don’t punish yourself, you don’t have to be perfect. Be yourself. Don’t punish your body for not being Elle McPherson’s (or David Beckham’s!), don’t punish your mind for not being Einstein’s. Fail. Get things wrong. Accept yourself, exactly as you are. Trust yourself.
And most of all: live, and live without fear.
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