Sunday Story...Awake and Dreaming

Sunday Story…Awake and Dreaming

“Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take”

I died last night. And the night before. And I will die again tonight and tomorrow night as well. Every night I die. So far I have managed to be reborn every morning. But there will be a day sometime in the future when I will not see the dawn. This is true for each and every one of us. And from the day I came into the world I have been dying.

The fear of death seems to be a great motivator for so many people…”My doctor said if I don’t lose 50 pounds, I’m going to die.” So you go on a diet and start exercising like crazy because you are going to die if you don’t. You are going to die anyway whether you are 50 pounds overweight or not. Maybe what your Doctor should say is…”if you want to live a life of optimum health and fitness lose 50 pounds.” But that would not really get you off your rear end and on the road to health and fitness.

Let’s be honest…if you do not know smoking is bad for you and the people around you, you are living under a rock. If you do not know that eating highly processed food full of sugar, sodium and trans fat is bad for you are living under the rock next to the smoker. We all know these things by now, at least in this part the world. Yet people are still smoking and dying of smoking related diseases by the thousands. Being fat affects your entire being...from your mental outlook to your ability to move in the world yet people are dying every day from obesity related diseases. I guess the Nile (denial) is not just a river in Egypt.

Or is there something else at work? As humans we are in the pursuit of pleasure and running from suffering. It is part of our condition, part of our Being. But lung cancer is painful (so I have heard anyway). So does the pleasure of smoking outweigh the pain of the disease? Does the pleasure of eating a Twinkie outweigh the disaster of diabetes? Does sitting on the couch for hours count for more pleasure than the pain of watching your children play without you because you are sitting down with your oxygen bottle? Because you were too lazy, or unmotivated, or addicted to change your behavior? What?? Are you serious? Quit making lame excuses and be honest with yourself and the rest of the world…
YOU DON’T BELIEVE YOU ARE GOING TO DIE! Dying happens to someone else. Diabetes happens to someone else. Cancer is reserved for someone else. So and so smoked and drank for 80 years and died in their sleep. If you really believed you were going to die you would live today like it was your last day…because it might be. No, really it might be your last day on earth. Today may be your day to die. Or not. Maybe you are going to be the exception to the rule...the person whose body lives forever.

I know I am going to die. I need to be strong and healthy today to enjoy today. I want my mind to be sharp, my body to be in shape and my spirit to be fresh and clear. I want to be able to have the gratitude of waking tomorrow with all the wonder of a newborn, fresh and clean in the world. I want today to be the day that I clean up the wrongs I have done, because I might not have a chance tomorrow. Today I eat the food that nourishes my body and soul. Today I move my body through time and space in ways that feel good to me. I speak kindly to people because I don’t want to leave their last impression of me sour. I feed my mind uplifting messages that create new thoughts in me and have me thirsting for even more.

The fear of death? I think not. Maybe you are afraid of life? Afraid of the sweet pleasure of a fresh picked apple, the scent of lavender in the field, the sunset every evening, the scent of a newborn. Maybe you are afraid of the gratitude you must have to really live your life full out, in a state of optimum health and fitness. Health and fitness is about gratitude, about living a life with purpose, about being calm and centered in the universe, at peace with my choices. Quit being afraid of living. Quit making choices that kill you in mind, body and soul. Get off the couch and start moving, figure out how to create food that serves you, turn off the incessant negative noise box in the room and start listening to the song birds, the laughter of children and the rocks move.

Pursue life. Pursue life affirming choices, not death. Stop grabbing death and calling it pleasure. Stop making choices based on the fear of death. It is irrational. You are going to die. What you do between reading this and that moment will be everything. Decide to live. Decide you are going to enjoy every moment; you are going to live a meaningful life. Which is simple really…you get to determine your meaning. We are meaning making machines. This is what we do as humans. We create meaning out of our lives. So…what meaning are you living right now? What have you made your actions mean? What is tomorrow going to mean? More of the same? Or will you get going and create new meaning, a new story to tell yourself?

Today is a good day to…live.

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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