The Life You Have

"Life requires a brave heart and a mind that sees the folly in clinging to anything." Jon Kabat-Zinn
"We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come." Joseph Campbell

Those two quotes appeared in my awareness on the same day! That kind of occurrence helps me to pay attention. The clarity of meaning is more than a gentle nudge to pay attention to how one spends time in the past or the future but not in the present with the life one is actually living.

It is so easy to want what we don't have and to miss what we do have. As 2009 continues quickly on, I invite you to look at your actual life, your real life in the present moment and to let go of the longing for your life to be different.

"Sometimes our longings make it impossible for us to live the life in front of us." Joan Chittister

Oh, yeah, that quote came on the same day as the other two. OK, it's time to really pay attention!