No Day But Today

I am looking for change in my life.  My family has grown up and moved on.  My love life still has all four tires on the road but has met with a very large speed bump (I'm hoping the 4-wheel drive works...).  My job isn't something to which I'll be returning and I am looking for something new.  So I'm going to use this space to examine change and find my direction.  I apologize up front for any tangents that may occur due to my A.D.D.

For sometime now, I have been obsessed with the movies Rent and The Peaceful Warrior.  Rent was originally a stage production and The Peaceful Warrior is based on a book.  The basic message of Rent is "No day but today" or in other words, now is all there is.  One of the many messages in The Peaceful Warrior is that "Death isn't sad. The sad thing is: most people don't live at all."  Living each day to the fullest is a goal that few people meet.  It's not because people don't want to live their lives fully, but that they don't know how.  I don't suggest for one second that I know how, but I'm hoping that we can explore this concept together.

Throughout time there have been those who encouraged living fully and living each day as if it were your last:
Every man dies. Not every man really lives. ~Braveheart
Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today. ~James Dean
To change one's life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly. No exceptions. ~William James
If you wait, all that happens is that you get older. ~Larry McMurtry, Some Can Whistle
Is there life before death? ~Author Unknown
Every day you are alive is a special occasion. Every minute, every breath, is a gift from God. ~Mary Manin Morrissey
Later never exists. ~Author Unknown
We are always getting ready to live but never living. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Carpe diem.  It's a worthwhile goal that has to be renewed with yourself daily.  There is only here, there is only now, seize the day, focus on what matters most.  In my world, it has always been people that mattered most.  Sometimes I get distracted by the fact that I am unemployed and there isn't enough money for the rent.  Sometimes I get so distracted by other people's problems that I forget to handle my own life.  It's not that I'm a flake or irresponsible, just that someone else was more important at the time.

I've reached a place in my life where I can be the center of my own universe.  I don't want to lose anyone.  Those that I love are very important to me and I have always sacrificed myself and made sure that others were taken care of regardless of what happened to me or my finances or my heart.  I have no intention of sacrificing my relationships with the significant people in my life as I commit to change.  I pray that they will see this as a wonderful journey and join me in it.  I would very much like to live before I die.  I'm not expecting death anytime soon, but you never know.  I would much rather die happy than die in the misery of waiting for my life to start and in a career that has chewed me up and spit me out many times.  So let's raise a glass and toast to change, seizing each day, and loving and being loved.  Let's drink deeply from that glass that we have blessed with our goal of change.  And finally, let's meet again often to discuss change and where it is leading us.