Live like you were living

The love of his life died 8 years ago. 

And ever since that day, he has set his boundary within the four walls of his home. 

His love only comes when we make the phone call or we take a stand. 

               We move so that he moves. 

                            We challenge his will. 

He is alive.  But he is not living. 

He breathes.   But life doesn’t take his breath away anymore.

His heart beats.  But only in rhythm with the remote control that sits softly on his armrest.

The atrophied muscles in his legs still get them where he needs to go.  If he would only go….somewhere.

His eyes still can appreciate the same sunset that they have always had the pleasure to see. 

He is here but he isn’t present. 

He is alive but he isn’t living. 

His life is in OUR living.  It is when we visit.  It is when we take him places.  It is in watching our children laugh & play & be alive.  But when we depart, so does his joy.  When we leave to go back to our own lives, his life, in some respect, stops.  He pushes his pause button & waits for the next call.  His life will remain on hold until someone else comes to resurrect it.

When did his life become the sum of other peoples living?

When did it become the product of every one else’s lives?

When did he make the choice to stop living in the moments he is still blessed with?

Or does he feel that the choice was made for him when she died?

We are surrounded with pleasure every day if we allow our hearts to open to the magic & miracle of all of them. 

We are provided a heart to feel.  We are given hands for the holding.  We are gifted with senses so that we can use them while we are here.  We need to live in the here & now.  Not wait for the then & there.  Let our hearts be used for what they are intended for.  To love with an entirety & a wholeness.   To let joy seep into every chamber until there is nothing more it can hold.  To allow our hands to want for nothing because we have everything that we would want or need or ever ask for. 

The day will be here soon enough when we are called to someplace greater.  But until then, let THIS life be the one that is all-consuming.  Seek the miracles of the day.  Let us not be just a shell of existence.   And let not our hearts keep beating just to keep us alive.   Let the breaths that are taken be appreciated & valued because it is bringing us something so much more.  Where we can walk through THIS life with a spirit of a life that is lived.   And lived well!!