Simple Truth of Life

In an age when we can find anything our hearts desire at the touch of our fingertips, it’s amazing that people are still searching for that simple truth to the secret of life. The secret to living a happy life… a life well lived.

People have gone on treasure hunts and expeditions around the globe for the one secret that seems so easy they just can’t comprehend its simplicity.

Maybe I’m off base here, but it seems the simple truth is the secret lies in just living.

Our lives are not meant to be lived in a box while the world passes us by day after day, instead, we are supposed to get dirty, laugh too loud and make mistake after mistake to understand how to do it right the next time.

Each of us has endured hardships whether it is the loss of a job, the loss of a loved one, that diagnosis we never expected… so many possibilities that could turn our lives upside down and right side up.

Except if living was meant to be easy, everyone would be bright and shiny every single day and that would be eerie in itself. Life will kick us down from time to time to help teach us to pick ourselves back up. In fact, it may shove us down to the ground and leave us feeling like getting up is not even an option, but it is up to our own sheer will and determination to get up one bruised knee at a time, dust ourselves off and keep moving forward.

A simple truth of life is living.

As many know, I’ve endured my share of loss throughout my life. Unfortunately for me, I know I will have to endure more as the years go by. At 25, I watched my father endure an excruciating six months of pain and suffering as the cancer slowly chipped away at the man I knew. This mountain of a man, whose laugh I still vividly remember could fill up a room, left this world without any regrets while his family stood by his side. My father ran marathons, cycled across the Midwest, served as a nurse in the military, surfed off the coast of Oahu, took his family on vacations all around the US every year and worked as a nurse in hospitals throughout St. Louis for over 30 years. I know my dad had lived a good life when he took his last breath.Earlier this year, I thought I had found the person I truly wanted to be but I let too many things, people and obstacles stand in my way and stop my journey. I have found myself starting down a new path figure out who I truly am – as a person, as a wife, as a mother, as a friend – with the lessons I have learned in the last year.

Recently, after seeing a close friend’s family handed some devastating news, I was left at a standstill, wondering if I too have been going about living all wrong. Yes, we are each given one life and it is our absolute duty to live it to the fullest each and every day. While some days may be lacking for obvious reasons, there is no reason why we can’t try to do at least one incredible thing every day of our lives. None of us is guaranteed tomorrow. So many times, misery and stress are self-inflicted when it comes to work, friends, family, and even extracurriculars. But why? Life is far too short to not just be happy and live a life worth living, whether it’s in a van under a bridge, a car by the ocean, a mansion on a mountain or a house in the suburbs.

Life continues to move forward whether we like it or not, to help us heal, to help us learn to walk again and to help us love again. The tears will continue to flow because the pain never truly ceases but eventually the wounds scar and skin heals. Life can be breathtaking one moment and heartbreaking the next, which is why it is so unpredictable. Our hearts and souls are resilient allowing us to fulfill the simple truth to living a good life — JUST LIVE IT!