Blog #752: I Couldn’t Look Away

I was flipping through TV channels…
until one of them stopped me cold.

I didn’t know the singer.
I didn’t know the song.

But I couldn’t look away.

______

It wasn’t his voice that caught me.

It was how completely he gave himself to the moment.

He wasn’t just singing.
He was pouring himself into every second.

Every word.
Every note.
Every expression.
Every movement.

He wasn’t worried about looking foolish.
He wasn’t worried about being judged.
He wasn’t performing to be accepted.
He was giving everything he had.

As I watched…

I felt something rare.

What moved me wasn’t the performance.

It was watching someone refuse to let fear decide who he would be.

______

I needed that reminder.

Because at 63 years old…

I know something I didn’t know when I was younger.

Life doesn’t get easier because we get older.

Some mornings I wake up already feeling a step behind.
Long trail walks with a backpack leave me hurting.

My body is changing.

I don’t like admitting that.
But pretending it isn’t true won’t change it.

Still…

I keep walking.
I keep dreaming.
I keep creating.
I keep going.

I’ve spent too many years discovering what life holds to start holding back now.

______

And then…

Two words found me.

Be committed.

Not committed to perfection.
Not committed to proving something.

Committed to bringing everything I have to the life I’ve been given.

That’s what the singer showed me.

The teacher who cares.
The friend who listens.
The stranger who stops to help.
The person who treats one customer as if they’re the only customer.

Those are the people who stay with us.

Not because they were perfect.
Because they were real.

Maybe that’s what living fully really is.

Not holding ourselves back.
Not waiting for a better time.
Not saving the best parts of ourselves for someday.

Giving our whole selves to the moment we’ve been given.

______

The truth is…

Most of us don’t need some extraordinary opportunity.

It’s probably already waiting.

A conversation.
A customer.
A stranger.
A dream we’ve been postponing.

Life rarely asks us to do something spectacular.

More often…

It asks us to bring something spectacular to an ordinary moment.

______

When my journey is finished…

I hope one word people use to describe my life is this:

Committed.

I don’t know how many Thursdays I have left to write.
I don’t know how many more countries I’ll have the privilege to explore.
I don’t know how many ordinary days I have left.

But I do know this.

Every one of them deserves everything I’ve got.

I don’t want to hold anything back.

Not from writing.
Not from walking.
Not from creating.
Not from living.

Because a calendar can count years.
But it cannot measure a life.

A life is measured by how completely we gave ourselves to the moments we were given.

That’s the life I’m committed to living.

______

So today…

Whatever is waiting for you…

Don’t just show up.
Be there.

Bring your heart.

Bring your courage.

Bring everything you’ve got.

Don’t save your best for “someday”…
when today is standing right in front of you asking for it.

Because although “someday” may be a sweet thought…

You may not get one.

S.

(Audio version)