One Life to Live

You have one life to live. Yes, you are born and you die. A life is finite and measurable. But I don't want to talk about the we only get one chance aspect of One Life. I want to talk about the the only life you have to live - as in you can't live anybody else's.

This is what I realized recently:

First, as Sting sang, "free, free, set them free...if you love somebody, set them free".
Second, as we are often told, "you have to love yourself before you're able to love someone else".

Ergo - you have to set yourself free if you are going to love yourself. And how, you're probably asking, am I going about setting myself free? Well, by following a quote which 21 years ago changed my life: "If you don't live it, you don't believe it." By living according to my values, by looking hypocrisy in the face at every turn, by being grateful and by understanding the insignificance of this One Life, I am free.

I love myself and am setting myself free. I can once again set the people I love free. And isn't that a beautiful thing - to be surrounded by people who are free? People who are free to love you and to be with you?


After note:
These are the things I think of as I'm riding my VFR and when I'm lifting weights alone. I talk to myself and all these things seem so interesting and reasonable. I don't know if they are, but damn, this one is important to me!