put the livin' in the {life}

I had a great thought struck me the other day while talking to a friend who is going through a divorce.

He's a fireman, so somewhere in my quick thinking and having just dealt with my own broken heart, I came up with this analogy {while we stood in the middle of Costco chit-chatting}

With life, like with CPR, sometimes regardless of what you think the outcome might be, you have to try.

You just have to try to put some life into it.

Even if it's just for the effort of looking back and knowing that you tried everything you could - no regrets.
I've coached so many people over the phone on this, just try, just try, just try, let's count together, I'll do it with you, just keep going until help gets there, don't give up, you're doing good,

keep going, keep going, keep going...

You just have to do that sometimes - with life, love, friendship, career goals, with everything.

Just put the effort into it to keep it alive.

{don't give up}

Now even with that thought, sometimes, I feel that despite all the things that I'm doing - 5ks, working out, yoga, blogging, travelling, craft fairs, fixing up the house, photography, all these things that I'm involved in…

I think that sometimes I'm so busy with being busy, I'm not living.

That is a really, true, honest statement about myself I've been realizing over the last couple of years.

No matter where I go, to work, the dentists office, my chiropractors, family dinners, everyone inevitable asks me the same question "where is your next trip?"

Of all the things I could have a reputation for, I can't lie, that's pretty damn cool

but, and there's a but,

I was {am} always on the go, go, go...

I've been asked how do you have time to do everything you seem to get done?

Well I don't know...but I think that there were times, in hindsight, when I was racing to the finish line without enjoying the journey {so many clichés, I know}.

{it's a journey}

At the same time I look at my bucket list of things to still do and I listen to other people talk about theirs;

like my friend Mel who told the other day that she hasn't travelled off the West Coast.

Yet. She will - it's just timing for her. She'll see this whole world eventually. I know she will.

When I talk to other people about their travel experiences, I have to look at the ones that I've been blessed to have in my life.

I've certainly had to pay for it, and dearly (cause credit card debt just doesn't go away) but I had to make the time for it, the arrangements, the effort.

I worked my life around departures and arrivals, sometimes flying home just in enough time to throw on my uniform and make it in under the wire to put on my headset and get back to work.

Even rushing from on experiences to the next, I'm glad that I've had them.

I'm glad I've seen other parts of this country, that I have perspective;

 a visual and emotional road map all of my own.

 I haven't lived with blinders on.

I am not defined by a zip code or a climate.

I'm glad to know that there are other places to move to if/when I want to

I know which places of the country I enjoy, the ones that feel like home, and the ones that are only worth a visit. Some people don't have that perspective, they still have that question mark unanswered about what's out there.

{you can always leave, but you can always come home}

I have to say that travel has helped to form and change my opinion of the world, 

who we are and how we relate.

Big cities are big cities.

Some places just feel like home.

People are people when you get down to it.

They are.

They want to have happy, successful lives {success being a measure that's decided individually},

but the common thread is that they just want to be happy and surrounded by people that love them.

Well, that's my estimation of all the people I've met and visited in my travels thus far.

Whether it was my friend's 90 year old uncle who lived in the same chalet in the Swiss Alps where he grew up his whole live or be it Bruce Maynard who is 77 years old, lost his wife to cancer, lost his job, and so he decided to walk across America where somewhere along the road in Florida last year, he ran into my brother who was also walking across America. 
There's a lot of living to be had in life and we're all trying, in our own ways, big or small, to keep pumping life into livin' or livin' into life.

My lesson lately is to be grateful for the things around me and live into the moments that are around me

not in the what-ifs or the someday, but in this now.

I've been sucked into stress and some heartache, both all around me and within me personally right now.
 Despite that, or maybe because if it, I'm still constantly trying to be aware of the time that's been given tome and make the best of it.

Day by day, hour by hour, page by page, and word by word, I'm trying to keep putting life into living. 

I do want to do it all, but I'm going to try to keep it in the here & now.

"Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why we call it 'The Present'." 

 ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

{STOP in this moment, in the now & notice what is all around you}