I watched the documentary Happy the other day.  It got me thinking about how many people believe in life after death because our life would have no meaning otherwise.  It saddens me that so many people miss that life is our purpose.  Life is meaning.  The very fact that I am alive at this present moment is a miracle.  I could have been anyone or lived anywhere during any time period.  I could be a star or a planet or an ant.  But I’m not.  I’m me and I’m here. Now. That is what is beautiful.  We don’t decide our fate in life, but we decide what we make of it.  I choose to love.  I choose to love my family.  I choose to love my friends, my enemies, and the stranger next to me.  I choose to love this entire world.  And most importantly, I choose to love me because without love for myself I can’t love anyone else.  Our universe is an amazing and beautiful place filled with so much potential, and it is love that actualizes that potential.

Hate and violence cripples us as a society.  It severs us from the universe.  We live in a world that separates us from one another.  I am no more important than any other person, and yet I am most important.  This is because we are all one.  Once we learn to truly love ourselves and to love others as we love ourselves, to treat others the way we would like to be treated, can we find peace in this world.  The way to find meaning and purpose in this life is to learn to love yourself unconditionally and then spread that love to the edges of the universe.  You are beautiful.  You are amazing.  You are strong.  And you are filled with so much potential for greatness.  This is your time.  Be who YOU want to be.   Do not waste your time being somebody else’s image of you.

One lifetime is merely a speck in time.  This may make you feel insignificant.  That life has no meaning.  But if time did not exist and life went on forever then, and only then, does life lose  meaning.  Living forever means I do not have to decide who I am or what is important to me because I have plenty of time to do it all.  I used to long for this.  “Oh if only I lived forever then I could try everything once,” I would tell myself.  Now I understand the preciousness of life.  I may not have time to try everything once, but I do have time to discover who I am, to try new things, to go to new places, and to meet new people.  What I CHOOSE to do during my speck in time is what’s special.  I no longer fear death because I know that I am special.  No, I do not want to die, but I am grateful for the time that I have been given, even if it is just a speck.

A woman said to me the other day, “If I died in my sleep tonight, I would have lived a full life.”  I want to feel this way.  I don’t believe that I have to wait until I am old to feel as if I’ve lived a full life.  Life only exists in the present.  It is in the present where we choose to live or choose to continue feeling unsatisfied. I choose to be grateful for every moment life has granted me and for every moment that is to come.

So here I sit, one of a billion others who share this speck in time with me.  I love you and I love me, and together we are destined for greatness.

Namaste.