100 years to live...

(I borrowed this post from an email to my best friend...)

I've found a new song of the season. It was playing in a restaurant one night a few weeks ago, as I sat with good friends talking of life and future and ages... and it cemented that surreal moment forever in my mind.

We only have 100 years to live... One thing I have thought lately as I've gone from one decision to the next -- is that wherever any of this goes, whatever any of it means -- life is too short to not seize the moment. Maybe this random two months of my life is meant to teach me to surrender... to plan less and pray more... to think less and live more... to be present in every moment and to recognize each miracle from the inside out.

What really matters to me? People. Relationships. Phone calls and emails and all the lines that connect us. Awareness. Authenticity. Not being so busy that I miss things. Not being so self-absorbed that I miss opportunities. Finding beauty... Creating beauty... Unearthing the real and the true and the redeemed...

I'm sure there's heartache somewhere around the corner. I'm going to hit a day where everything seems to be falling apart and I'll wonder all over again. But I'll get past that day and go on to the next -- that's living. That's life.

I am all the ages I've ever been... I am all the worlds I've ever lived in... I am all the people I've ever known. And the more I embrace it all, mingled, messy, unresolved... the more I find myself in the middle of it, somewhere.

I look at how many time zones I'm living in right now... There's six on my computer screen, plus the one I'm in now. Seven worlds that matter immensely to me. Would I trade all those today for one simpler life, more peaceful?

Not a chance.

:: "There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." - Albert Einstein