12,000 days

Do you know how many days you've lived? If you don't, its easy to figure out. Or at least you can get a general idea. Doing math in my head is pretty general and sometimes can be WAAY off, but without trying to figure it out to a perfect exact number, I've lived roughly 12,000 days. Most of those days i wouldn't be able to tell you what i did. They just passed away without being memorable...

Now, how many days have you actually LIVED? I've been alive for about 12,000 days but how many of those have I lived? How many did i waste feeling sorry for myself? and how many did i take for granted because I thought that "tomorrow is another day" and today isn't worth salvaging? We don't get those days back...once they are gone, they're gone. We only live for a certain amount of days...each is precious and each has the potential to be memorable and great in their own respects. BUT we have to live them in order for this to happen.

The past is the past. It cannot be changed, would you agree? What has happened is done. There's no going back...sure, we can learn from the past, our past, others' past... but how about making our own mistakes, learning lessons for ourselves? What if we could go back? would you? why? do you regret decisions you've made? or are you able to accept them as what they are and learn from them, good or bad, and move forward? are you able to live in the NOW and not get stuck in the what ifs of what could have been? Or are you constantly striving towards, planning for and dreaming of the future...of what hasn't come?

Learning from the past is smart, and planning for the future is wise, but where do you draw the line and actually be present in the present? Some would argue that this is a silly, immature way to live, but it'll never come again and if you waste it its gone. However you choose to live your life is up to you and you alone. Are you satisfied with how your life is right now? if an asteroid crashed into you wherever you happen to be right now would you feel as though you lived your life? Or would you be dissapointed that you didn't get to do something, or say something to someone?

Stop making excuses and live your life today.

On June 10, 2010 my niece, Rebecca Faith, was born. She was born with health issues that ultimately took her life 18 months later. She never walked, never talked, never tasted real food (other than homemade vanilla ice cream on her first birthday). She wasn't consumed with her choices in the past, how she had been treated, or what she would do in her life to come...

The doctors gave her less than a year to live and she beat that! Her life is an inspiration for me to make the most of my life, make the most of the choices that I choose. And its a big reminder that i have been given the richness to experience life as I am right now! Life is so precious and yet so fragile and so many of us take so much of it for granted...enjoy being able to taste your food, enjoy the smell of rain, fresh cut grass, and burnt toast. Enjoy feeling rain on your skin, the sun burning your neck, and the heat of a campfire on your shins. Don't take anything for granted. Be yourself for your reasons, not someone somebody else tells you to be for their reasons. Experience emotion, don't suppress it...it helps us feel alive in this small silly world we are in. Choose things that make you happy or sad but choose them; don't just let them happen...Love on everyone you come into contact with...there's no room for hate.

Live your life...don't just be alive.



"I love you little Becky! Thank you for sharing your moments with me!"