Living life to the full has been the choice of one of my favorite novelists, Louise Penny, whose much-loved husband is suffering from dementia. She refuses to put life on hold, waiting for the worst to happen. She and her husband recently traveled to one of his favorite cities and she rejoiced to watch his energy levels rise. She also is going on tour with her latest book (a shortened tour because of her husband's illness) because she knows that it is important for her personal life and her readers' lives for her to meet and connect with her readers who have been so supportive. And, she continues her writing, her personal labor of life and love, her way to touch others' lives.
Louise, like us, is trying to maintain a balance in her life. She is living life to the fullest by supporting her ill husband's life, their life as a couple, her personal life and relationships, and her ministry of writing.
We also have relationships, personal work and ministry, and personal gifts and aspirations to pay attention to and keep in balance so that we can live life to the fullest. If we set our lives on hold, waiting for life to get better or worse, we live a shadow life, a life of promise rather than fulfillment. The amount of time we can practically devote to each area of our life will always vary, decrease or increase. But we need it all there, in some way.
I know we don't always live life to the fullest. If we are exhausted because we haven't gotten enough sleep the night before, or we are exhausted by emotional pressures and turmoil, our mental vision darkens and narrows and we can barely move, barely smile or talk. We can choose to walk though our day detached, unseeing, unproductive, ungrateful.
But we can choose to consciously, quietly meditate and be aware as we walk along through the day. We can choose to thank God for the gift of the blue sky and flowers, the gift of our husband or wife or closest friend beside us; we can thank God for the gift before us of food and drink to place on the table; the gift of a stranger's friendly remark; the gift of an hour to "chill out" or nap; the gift of our children and grand-children and the people we labor for; the gift of those men and women on the News who rush to help the survivors of earthquakes and tornadoes.
We can thank God ultimately for the gift of our Breath, our life on this amazing planet, our unique place in this amazing network of the human race, our identity as a Child of God, the One for Whom we try to live our life to the fullest so that we can give God the glory with each thankful Breath.
Once we meditate, we know who we ultimately are. We come to an inner attitude of both gratitude and a sense of mission of living our lives for God and others. Now, we can truly wake up to today's world. We start to emerge like a butterfly from our darkened, narrow cocoon. We begin to really see the various lives going on around us. We open ourselves to God's rushing, jubilant spring of Life within us, and, nourished by God, we begin to truly live and respond to Today. We begin to love, love Life, see its infinite possibilities. Love ourselves, love others, see the infinite possibilities in our relationships and in our work.
And, in living Today to the fullest, we plant the seeds of our capacity to live a full-hearted, loving, creative response to Tomorrow. Even when the worst, a Death of some kind, enters our lives, we are inwardly prepared. The life of infinite Love within us reassures us that Life will always continue, in us, and in those we love, in infinitely new and wonderful ways, in the Future of eternity.