To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.  – Oscar Wilde

There comes a point when life feels like an endless list that keeps cycling around again and again. The usual suspects come to mind, grocery shopping, laundry, carpooling, gassing up the car, dentist, school, doctor, repeat. There is a brief high when we feel we’ve gotten it all done. But it is momentary, because it’s never all done, and if we’re honest with ourselves, endless errands are not the real point of being alive.

My personal to-do list is just as long. At times it can feel like even the fun stuff is list of have-to-dos rather than want-to-dos. There are certain things that will always need doing, but there also has to be some spontaneity. The unexpected has to make it into the daily round. It doesn’t have to be anything major, like a surprise weekend getaway, it can be small, like an unexpected dinner with friends, or a small outing that turns into an all day adventure. How about just saying yes to trying something new. This is how we create a place for life to have it’s moment. We need times that surprise and delight us. The pattern and rounds of daily life are thrown off for a few minutes or hours and we feel enlivened, more like our self. Even the best of routines need a shake up once in awhile. A day off from the things we regularly do makes space for the unusual, unplanned, or unexpected. We can’t wake up every morning already knowing every single thing that’s going to happen, over-scheduling suffocates authenticity. It doesn’t allow what is most real within us to live, that deeper self that craves expression.

This is where the wild card comes into play. Those times where we heed inspiration or embrace an unexpected opportunity. Maybe we get up at 5 a.m. to watch the sunrise, try a new restaurant, or begin something we’ve been putting off forever. A day with no plan, or a day of tying up all kinds of loose ends. What it consists of doesn’t matter as long as it’s not typical. It’s important to get out of the well-formed grooves of our lives and make room for the unknown.

The point is life is meant to be lived, not slept through. Switching off auto-pilot helps kick start seeing with new eyes. Seeing with new eyes makes everything we do more fresh and alive. This is how life is meant to be lived, with excitement, awareness, and vitality. It’s a gift to embrace every moment of our life this way instead of just getting through it.

Here’s our chance. What will we do with today?

kb