“God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.” ~ Voltaire

When I was a little kid, I didn’t really have that many toys. In fact, up to a certain age, I only remember having this cute teddy bear that my sister received from one of her friends. We all shared that one teddy bear, and you have no idea how happy we were to have that one toy.

I know many of you might read this and think: “Oh, what a sad story…” But I don’t see it that way. To me, having less than others taught me to appreciate the little I had and to love it with all my heart. And that made me happy. 

I guess Melody Beattie was right: “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.”

On Living Life like a Human Being, Not a Human Doing

In a world where we have so much of everything – so much stuff that’s cluttering our homes, living environment, relationships, hearts and our minds – to appreciate the things we have seems like such a foreign concept to so many people. 

The things we have don’t interest us that much. And the things that are missing from our lives, they always seem to look so much better than the ones we do have.

‘We are shallow because we have become enslaved by gross materialism, the glitter of gold and its equivalents, for which reason we think that only the material goods of this earth can satisfy us and we must, therefore, grab as much as can while we are able.” ~ F. Sionil Jose

We fill our days with so much “stuff” that’s cluttering our minds, our hearts, and our lives. And because we’ve gotten so used to having all this “stuff” in our lives, we can no longer see the damage it does to us.

It seems to me that we want To Want more than we want To Have. It’s the wanting that drives us, not the having.

So my question is:

What are we doing to ourselves?

What are we doing to our lives, to our time, to our health?

What are we doing to our children?

Is this the life we want to be living?

There is a beautiful line in the Tao Te Ching, this incredible book that was written more than 2500 years ago by this wise man called Lao Tzu, that goes like this: “If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.”

There’s nothing wrong with having a lot, nothing wrong with wanting, but when you become a slave of all that you have, of all that you want to have, and forget to live your life, that’s when things get out of balance. 

Wayne Dyer spoke about this so beautifully: “I am a human being, not a human doing. Don’t equate your self-worth with how well you do things in life. You aren’t what you do. If you are what you do, then when you don’t…you aren’t.” 

You are not a human Doing, you are a human Being. And you deserve to take a break from all that chasing and all that striving, and allow yourself permission to feel what it feels to be truly alive – here and now. What it feels like to rest and be thankful…

Don’t you just want to enjoy your life without feeling like you’re constantly striving but never arriving?

Don’t you just want to enjoy this moment without always having to get someplace else?

Don’t you just want to feel the love flowing through every cell of your body?

Don’t you just want to hold your partner’s hand and share a moment of perfect silence together?

Don’t you just want to SEE your children for who they truly are and not for who you think they should be?

Don’t you just want to be still for a while and feel the life that flows through you?

Don’t you just want to CONNECT with those around you, not through your phone or laptop, but face to face, and heart to heart?

Don’t you just want to stop acting like a human Doing and just be a human Being for a while?

Don’t you just want to Be Happy?

I think you do. And you deserve it 🙂 

~love, Luminita💫

Comments