by SEG

Created on: May 12, 2008   Last Updated: August 25, 2011

As the only navigator and driver of my life, I'm not always awake at the wheel, which is probably why I hit so many trees along my youthful road of exuberance. But looking back, I wouldn't change a thing because Life is for the living if we have the guts to grab it.

And survive the ride while enjoying it through that stage of immortal and bullet-proof youth; and sometimes I can’t help but look back and think that maybe youth is wasted on the young.

But never the less, that's when we have the most energy during life when we first explore out and away from our childhood restraints, learning life’s lessons first hand and hopefully we took a good road map with us- some accumulated knowledge and the beginnings of wisdom.

When I was eight years old reading was the rocket ship of life, taking me everywhere an imaginative kid could dream of going. And after several years of exploratory reading searching for my magnetic north, I realized that learning was more than just what we were taught in school, which after all only imparts to us the basics of practical living.  Exploratory reading shows us not only a wider variety of paths that living has to offer, but shows us different cultural perspectives about life as well- we learn the art of progressive thinking and imaginative variations.

I was sixteen when I realized lying was a futile exercise; it would be great if I could claim I was aware of moral implications and ethical restraints at that early age, but the truth of the matter is I just became aware of the fact it's impractical. Dishonesty is an act of imagination that requires a lot of effort to keep practical track of and we have other, vital things to do in life.

One of those crucial things is eventually learning the utter futility that deception is intrinsically composed of: a life bought with counterfeit ideas is ultimately a bogus life that really doesn't exist and isn’t worth living.

If we want to navigate through a meaningful life, we need to stay on its roads and out of its swamps.

And a youthful love of travel and new experiences along those roads ‘… on a shoe string' goes well with a strong back and a ready willingness to take on any new work. If a man is willing to test himself with rough and tough jobs, no matter where you go there's work waiting for you along with new friends and experiences.

Taken all together, life is a tough job but the more friends, fresh experiences and ‘true love’ we find along the way the more robust it is, if we slow down long enough to feel it today that is-  we all have our share of luck waiting for us to fill in the gaps tomorrow...

With one foot in yesterday and today’s busy decisions placing the other in tomorrow, it’s easy to miss the experience of today- while our intelligence reflectively divides-up the past and projects our future, ‘right-now’ challenges such notions- how do you ‘divide-up’ the after-glow of a good book or the experience of feeling a warm spring day on a mountain trail ‘right now’?

Life's full of ups and downs yet if we spend too much of our time here trying to avoid the ‘downs’ tomorrow might bring we'll miss the fun of learning life's new lessons today.

But that's only part of the story because we have a spiritual side as well. And growing along that path is vitally important because without something larger than ourselves to look up to and forward to the world becomes nothing more than a small place inside one man's life.

Life is a much bigger place than one man can see and requires a knowledge and strength beyond ourselves to navigate survive and grow in.

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