Prompt Day 5: Coming Alive

Come Alive

Life wastes itself while we are preparing to live. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
1.If you had one week left to live, would you still be doing what you’re doing now?
2.In what areas of your life are you preparing to live?
3. Take them off your To Do list and add them to a To Stop list. Resolve to only do what makes you come alive.
Bonus: How can your goals improve the present and not keep you in a perpetual “always something better” spiral?

I like this one! Here are some pictorial views of what I would keep doing that I do now. 

 1. Exploring different foods and recipes with Wylie such as goat milk chocolate pudding pops from scratch that were messy but Chocolate Yumminess. We have also done carrot blueberry bread, chicken nugget soup, strawberry bread, zucchini quesadillas, etc

 2. Spend time with my family exploring the world. Seeing what the wrath of nature leaves behind, seeing what the crash of the ocean sounds like and the feel of sand is like. We also have experienced rain storms and snow and forests when most people avoid them for inconvenience or lack of comfort. We learn and have fun. As a family it is something I cherish and wouldn't change for the world.

3. Enjoying the moments like the one here where I am smiling and happy. Experience moments that my child has never experienced and see them through his eyes. Never take for granted his experience as "old hat."

I think I was preparing to live when we were in California for awhile in the house in Jefferson Park as we were in some kind of hunker down and survive mode rather than live mode. We got out of that house choosing to live rather than survive and started to live. What an earth shattering difference. I also refuse to sit and look back on happy moments and judge those few moments based on my weight or perceived beauty at the moment. In that house I also thought I could wait to make friends when I felt we had resolved the situation well enough to have friend over. BIG BIG mistake. 

The one area in which we are "preparing" to live is finding a house to live in as we try to find the right one. This isn't so much about preparing to live as making sure we are living safely and sanely. But it has put parts of us on hold.
I am reaching out and making friends now. Asking for coffee dates, making the effort to go places and do things.
My goals are present and future related. I'm always trying to learn something that gives me a goal for the present and the future.