It’s not life if you aren’t living

I find it laughable I think I have the audacity to talk about living life.

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For almost as long as I can recall, I have let school and work, and the stress of school and work, dictate my days. My to-do lists have to-do lists, and you bet my not one but two calendars are color-coded to the max. 

You could say I am a bit type A. 

But you know, over the years, I have grown. If you could not have guessed based on the previous chapters, I attribute a lot (most) of this personal growth to my time in Alabama. It was here I learned to embrace a sense of (planned) spontaneity, learned to be comfortable with the uncomfortable. 

I learned I could slow down, take a deep breath, and even embrace the occasional Wednesday night sleepover. 

I have tried to remember this mindset while in graduate school. I enjoyed being a force of type A nature during the workday and a whimsical human of type B energy on the weekends. Different days and weeks and months seem to have me forgetting the importance of this lesson. But it is during these time periods I recall a graphic t-shirt I once saw someone wearing:

I was on a hike, naturally, hauling my butt up a mountain. I paused to move out of the way for some fellow hikers coming down the slope, looked up, and noticed the phrase 

Every day is a living spree. 

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Life is short.

Priorities and things are endless.

There is good in the unknown. In the tiny, unexpected moments. And even in the magic of the ordinary.  

No, I am certainly not the best-equipped person to preach about spontaneity and whole-hearted living. But I live to learn, to observe, and to say “yes” when I normally would have said “no.” 

I live to live. 

And so should you.

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Who needs a plan when the sun is shining?

Mitchell Tenpenny