Lust for life
picture by walt jabsco
I’m hungry. No, not for food. We have no shortage of food around here. And I’ll admit, that I’ve never in my life unwillingly gone a day without a meal. I don’t know real hunger and I’m not planning on ever knowing it.
But I’m … hungry.
Peckish doesn’t even come close. Insatiable is much too strong. Just hungry. And I’m not fussy really. No, not at all. My appetite will accommodate a rather wide variety of enticing possibilities. It’s even likely I could shock you if I were truly honest about how diverse my tastes are.
How is it I’m ever hungry yet simultaneously satisfied? What is it that I crave yet once tasted is often enough?
I’m hungry for experience. I can absorb it vicariously, but that’s no substitute for experiential learning. And I suppose, looking back at the experiences that comprise my life, I can say with integrity that I haven’t taken the easy road. Not often, anyway.
I’ve jumped out of an airplane, I’ve lived in another country, I’ve eaten some pretty unusual fare, and I’ve mastered driving on the wrong side of the road. I learned a different language and I have friends from other cultures. I’ve climbed mountains (small ones) and joined movements (big ones) and I’ve found love and a lover whom I intend to be with till the end of my days. I’ve had more babies than I ever expected, and breastfed them for longer than I ever set out to do. I’ve found the whole journey so much more satisfying than I ever envisioned when I was fresh out of home and trying to establish a life of my own.
That’s not to say that I think the whole world needs to do what I’ve done. I’m ever so grateful for the life I’ve acquired but I’m not prescribing that for everyone else. It’s not much of a life, though it’s more than many others have so that’s the source of my gratitude. I have few regrets, presently none that bog me down, and with the experience of almost forty years that I call my life, I can truly say that I’m still hungry for life, and experience, and friendship, and inspiration. My muse is life. Everything about it. Even the ugly stuff, the mistakes, the regrets. I feel light as a feather tonight and if there was music playing, I’d be dancing. To that famous Iggy Pop song. Yeah!
June 5th, 2009 - Posted in personal growth, gratitude, happiness, play, love, health | |
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on June 7th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
[…] I have to come clean. If this is to be a blog about personal growth I must be honest with myself: last Friday’s lust for life which I very much enjoyed writing and sharing, was not completely a natural high. Upon reflection (thanks for unwittingly pointing it out M-L) I was under the influence and because of that, my intoxication with life lacks integrity. […]