While Alive, Live

Getting on with life

Journal: 7 October, 2024, morning.

“If you’re still alive, you must be fully alive.”

(Just something I read a few minutes ago, in a writing from Laura Lenz)

I’m still here. Still alive. So what do I do with that? Well, not waste it, not one minute of it, on things I cannot do anything about. Which are MANY.

So. Moving on to things I can do something about. Which are MANY.

Yes. Truly!

I can scrub the kitchen cabinets, washing away the record of many good meals (confession: I already did that this morning, early riser me). They gleam! Somewhat worn around the knobs from daily use (we use our kitchen, all the time), but clean once again.

I can get out the lemon oil furniture polish and finish polishing the bedroom furniture, which is solid cherry and has deepened and ripened in color in the almost thirty years we’ve had it. Why don’t I do this more often? I love the results. That richness is such a wonderful foil to the buttercream walls and the olive green bed linens and the Audubon print of magnolias. And while I’m at it I can do something with the stacks of books in the corner, aging in place.

I can make a strawberry pie in honor and memory of Jo. She loved them.

I can replant all the spider lilies I’ve been accumulating and saving, in a spot where they will flourish, in honor and memory of my Mom, who never met a plant she didn’t love.

I can read my morning meditations and fill my mind and heart with good things, that reset button leading to peace and tranquility.

I can walk with Henri in the early morning darkness and look at the stars (I already did that too).

“While alive, live.” Brevity that is tattoo worthy.

There’s so much to do, I tell myself, so just get up and do it. Stop ruminating on things that are out of my control. There is no profit in that, Sharon.

Just get on with your life, Sharon.

I am, right now. #makeyourselfuseful

#journalingalife