Thought for today:
"To truly be a person who lives on the edge of life, there has to be a constant risk of 'going over'. I have long thought that the only real battle in life is between hanging on and letting go; knowing when to surrender and when to resist. All people who live their life boldly, wildly, and beautifully live life on the edge. For the past month in hospital, I know that I've walked that edge, and am still perilously close to it, but during the past 24 hours, I feel like I can move in a step towards the the safety of the mainland.
As I get older, I am strengthened in the belief that too many people worry about how old they are or what kind of illnesses and poor health they've had in the past. If there is one thing I am sure of, it is that a preoccupation with age and illness places too many constrictions on one's life! Paradoxically, since I learned to look death in the face after being informed of my terminal illness some four years ago, I have never felt so alive. Whereas one time, I might spend many months thinking about the next book I would write, today I cannot get pen to paper quick enough and I have ideas constantly generating about my next few books.I only have to meet a stranger, visit a new thought and a new story starts to germinate at the back of my brain.
I often feel that the longest and most meaningful journey in life we take is a journey into ourselves. Every day we walk in peace and love, we walk with God. Every emotion we experience and everything we express; a smile, a love, a tear, a lust, a learning, an awakening, a memory, a dream, a vision, a laughter, a joy, or even a forlorn hope is what we carry in our rug-sack. We become happiest once we realise that life can be hell, hell can be now, but so is heaven! If you are wise, you will embrace change instead of feeling threatened by it, and you will always place yourself in a position whereby you can readily divorce your past, court your present and marry your future.
I have always found that life will not stand around if you give it something to do. At its very least, its unpredictablity will keep you on your toes. The busiest people are often the happiest. If their life's is driven by passion, their legacy of not being easily forgotten is guaranteed.
A sad irony is that we all have an edge, whether it be the person with the fullest and most satisfactory of lives or the unhappy and depressive person who has very little going for them. The peculiar part of our nature is that both types cannot avoid walking the line from time to time in their lives. I see strong, opposing emotions like love and hate, satisfaction and disappointment, rejection and self-acceptance, finding purpose or fearing helplessness, I find all these feelings as being capable of taking one to the edge of life.
The closest that I can think of a happy person living on the edge is to love someone without qualification. Love asks us all to be bolder and braver than is often comfortable to be. It requires us to be a little more generous, far more understanding and infinitely compassionate and flexible. In many ways it means being prepared trust one's footing during all our travels. "William Forde: January 23rd, 2017.
https://youtu.be/OfJRX-8SXOs