Living For Today

Living in the Moment

Not too long I ago, I discovered TED, and I'm a little bit addicted. I love listening to twenty minutes of someone talk about design or life or technology. It pulls me out of the world of stress over swimming lessons, and hydrating everyone, and teaching your children that, no, it isn't nice to put that bug net on top of the baby's head. I like my world, but it is nice to be a part of the big conversations that are going on outside of my small reality.

I listened to one such conversation a couple of days ago, and I'm still thinking about it. Steve Jobs, the CEO (and creative genius) behind Apple gave a commencement address (here), and I listened, riveted.

Since then, I keep thinking about the direction of my life. Am I following my gut and taking the risks I need to take for growth and greater happiness? Am I trusting my instincts to take me where I need to go? Am I trusting that, sometime in the future, I will look back and see how everything worked out?

All of these questions are swirling in my mind, but maybe the biggest question is one Jobs says he asks every morning - If I were going to die today, would I still do what I am about to do?

You can't ask these questions without realizing that, in one way or another, you've got to do a little better. It reminds me of a favorite quote.

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people the permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

- Marianne Williamson

I know I can live a little better. I want to live every day with joy, and to know, that if today was my last, that would be okay.