Enjoy life because of what you bring into it rather than expecting life to supply the enjoyment for you.
Early morning on a trip through Albuquerque, New Mexico heading to Atlanta.
The vibration of every atom and molecule in my body can be felt as well as the ringing in my ears as a result of sixteen straight hours driving from Los Angeles to Albuquerque. Although it didn’t appear as though I would be able to, I finally fell asleep.
I woke up at 2:30 am and soaked in the bath tub for a long period of time. I felt the warmth of the water and the life in my body merge as if the water was the life of me and I couldn’t help but match life itself to a bath like this.
But when I had all of this bath that I wanted I pulled the plug and watched the water level lower as it drained from the tub, and again, I matched this water to a force of life. Soon the water would be gone and I’d have no further purpose to be in the tub. I would have to leave since the “life” force of the water was gone.
I thought, when that which gives you life leaves, there is no longer any purpose for you to stay. Such a simple thought to hit so hard. I’m just getting out of an empty bath tub, and I’m thinking about that part of life as a time when there would be no need to stay any longer.
I watched the level of the water in the tub lower as if it were the life force in me swirling down the drain. And I imagined that the level of my energy, at any time, can be governed by my own desire to stay, or to get out of the tub. At a point, in which my desire is to get out of the tub, I will pull the plug. This means no more than to no longer live with the zest that was once there. Lose just a small degree of desire to live and I believe in a self-fulfilling prophecy that you will lose the same degree of life. It will be my own desire to get out of the tub that will dictate how soon I allow the “water” to begin it’s slip down the drain. The key is desire.
It’s when someone like Terry comes along to show me that life has so much more to “stick around for”, that I become more concerned with nurturing my life-systems energy, so it doesn’t drain so quickly.
Looking at the purpose and reasons we live, and the longevity some people share, I’m curious as to how many people simply lose the desire to continue living the life they’re soaking in. Our desire is something we can control by carefully watching what we bring into the tub with us.
Don’t let the water get cold, turn the lights down low, listen to soothing music, or play with your favorite toy boat, or your rubber-duckey. But, enjoy life because of what you bring into it rather than expecting life to supply the enjoyment for you.
God wants us to have life and have it abundantly.
There must be a good reason for that. Possibly it is because the fullness and pleasures of life are the keys that keep us from “pulling the plug” spiritually, and allows us to search just a little longer in order to find the purpose God put us here.
