Feel it all

Here's something I've learned--and keep learning--something about life: let it happen to you. Let it overtake you. Feel it. Sit with it. The joy and the sorrow. The unknown. The possibility.

I don't say this lightly and I absolutely don't say this as an expert. I say this after several weeks of doing everything I could to avoid myself. To distract myself. To ignore my heart's pleas to pay attention.

The fear, of course, was that by connecting--really listening to what was inside--I'd brush up against feelings so big I wouldn't know how to handle them. And this is true for both ends of the emotional spectrum--too much joy can be as overwhelming as too much sorrow. Both can be terrifying in their reach and impact.

But what's the alternative? Feeling the world through a protective film--everything a little blurry and dull? Why bother? Why, then, are we here, if not to immerse and laugh and cry and listen and feel and run when we want to and rest when we need to and wake up and do it all again?

It's spring in Pennsylvania and I hear birds singing all day long. The breeze is warm and sweet. It is the perfect time to live fully. It always is.

"Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final."--RMR