You do not have to wait in line for life.
Your turn began the moment you arrived.
The question is no longer when your life will start—but what you will do with the life already calling your name.
Remember standing in line for something you really wanted?
You watched the people ahead of you receive their turn while you waited to reach the front.
The thought process was simple:
You wanted something.
You went after it.
Whatever waiting, effort or expense was involved felt worthwhile because the desired result stood ahead of you.
Then your turn arrived.
NO WAITING IN LINE FOR THIS
Life is different.
It is the highest gift—and it arrives before you can ask for it.
It has to!
You would need to be alive before requesting life. But if you were already alive, what exactly would you be asking for?
Life is both a gift and a mystery placed into your care.
Your responsibility is to live it while pleasantly solving what it means.
LIFE PROTECTS ITSELF
Deep within living creation is a command to preserve life.
Survival responses activate before we have time to request them. The body pulls away from danger, seeks air, protects itself and works continually to keep the life within it going.
Life has its own terms and dynamics.
That does not surprise me.
But it continues to leave me marveled and awed.
LIFE REMINDERS
We become so occupied with wanting, pursuing, collecting and accomplishing that awareness of life itself is pushed into the back seat.
In other words:
We take it for granted.
Then something happens.
An illness.
An accident.
A loss.
A close call.
A quiet moment beside someone whose life is ending.
Life rises from the background and announces:
“I AM HERE.”
Life is at work—and needs to be worked.
LIFE ABOVE ALL
When life feels threatened, it delivers a distinct wordless message:
This is paramount.
Everything else suddenly loses its appeal.
Possessions, appointments, arguments, ambitions and inconveniences become very small.
Even ordinary thinking may step aside while the whole person focuses upon one command:
LIVE.
Why must life be threatened before we recognize its value?
PAUSE FOR CAUSE.
You are alive right now.
No emergency was required to reveal it.
Let that be reminder enough.
LIFE GIVEN
When a threatening episode passes, possibilities reappear.
What will you do with the life still available?
People can choose many kinds of lives because the physical gift arrives without a printed instruction sheet attached.
Here is life.
Use it.
And we all do—wisely, carelessly, purposefully or accidentally.
Much of this takes place without words.
REMIND ME—WHY AM I HERE?
At different points, each person may ask:
Why me?
Why am I here?
What is required of me?
The answer rarely arrives in the ordinary way we expect answers to appear.
No envelope drops from the sky.
No complete schedule is handed to us.
So we continue until the next reminder arrives.
Hmmm.
HAVING—BUT WHAT?
People pursue whatever appears upon their radar:
Wants.
Needs.
Desires.
Pleasures.
Possessions.
Experiences.
Eventually, having these things may become mundane or superficial.
The excitement fades.
What once thrilled us becomes ordinary.
That realization tells us something:
A greater value is present but has not yet been fully discovered.
LIFE BEING LIVED
The searching and pursuing may initially feed the life process.
Discovery creates movement.
Movement creates experience.
Experience can reveal purpose.
But obtaining everything one can eat, drink, purchase or enjoy eventually loses its reward if acquisition is the only point.
It may keep a person occupied.
But occupied and fulfilled are not the same condition.
What is the point of filling every hour if the hours remain empty?
FULLNESS OF LIFE
What makes a full life?
Is it living longer while repeating the same things?
Is it gathering the greatest quantity of possessions and pleasures?
Or is it living with quality—experiencing things deeply, loving honestly, serving meaningfully and recognizing value beyond material gain?
Should life be hoarded?
Or shared?
And if shared—how?
WORTHY NOTE:
Excess and moderation visit everyone.
The lesson is learned—when it is learned.
MISSPENT LIFE
Have you ever observed someone and thought:
“They are throwing their life away”?
A misspent life can become painfully visible.
We may struggle to explain exactly how to live correctly, fully and purposefully—but we often recognize when someone is moving in the opposite direction.
The tragedy is not merely making a mistake.
Mistakes can teach.
The greater tragedy is repeatedly refusing the lesson while time continues paying the bill.
HOW DO WE MEASURE LIFE?
Should life be measured by longevity?
Purpose?
Accomplishment?
Love?
Sacrifice?
Service?
Growth?
Perhaps a meaningful life includes portions of all these things.
We tend to take life for granted until it appears at risk.
If losing life—or nearly losing it—is required before we recognize its essence, something important has been missing from our awareness.
Do not wait for danger to teach gratitude.
LIFE GIVEN FOR ANOTHER
It has often been said that no greater love can be demonstrated than laying down one’s life for another.
The impact of that sacrifice is almost beyond words.
The person giving their life may never see what happened afterward.
The person saved continues living with the knowledge that someone placed their future ahead of their own.
One turn ended so another could continue.
WHO’S TO SAY?
Many heroic acts are never publicly known.
People protect, provide, serve and sacrifice without receiving headlines, medals or acknowledgment.
Somebody remained awake so you could sleep.
Somebody worked so you could eat.
Somebody defended what you inherited.
Somebody taught what you now know.
Somebody gave up part of their life so your life could move forward.
You are here partly because of people whose sacrifices may never be fully measured.
LIFE SACRIFICE
Parents are automatically inducted into this dynamic.
What caring parent has not surrendered time, comfort, money, sleep or personal desire so a child could benefit first?
Sacrifice may arrive in one dramatic act.
More often, it appears in small daily portions:
Meals prepared.
Bills paid.
Rides given.
Worries carried.
Opportunities postponed.
Love repeatedly choosing someone else’s well-being.
Much of life’s greatness is performed quietly.
DON’T WASTE IT
We are often told:
“Do not waste time.”
We sometimes translate that into money—time is money.
But the deeper reason is that time is life being spent.
We receive only so much.
How much?
Nobody knows.
When will the allotment end?
There is the wild card.
That is the kicker!
We avoid dwelling upon it until something prompts us.
I am prompting you now.
IT’S YOUR TURN
When we first enter the world, we have no awareness of what has begun.
Even while growing, we may not fully grasp it.
At some point—usually after spending a portion of life—we begin understanding what is happening.
The education costs time.
But once you understand that your turn is underway, continuing to live unconsciously becomes a choice.
Your turn is not approaching.
Your turn is NOW.
GO-BACK
How many people have said:
“If I could go back knowing what I know now…”
We want to begin again with the wisdom purchased through years of experience.
We now recognize what worked.
We know what did not.
We understand which worries were wasted, which opportunities mattered and which people deserved more of us.
But we paid for that knowledge with portions of our lives.
You cannot go back.
But you can bring what you learned forward.
That is the next best thing—and the only thing still available.
A person may receive a coveted head start from parents, teachers, elders and others willing to share what life taught them.
Of course, that person would have to listen.
Wouldn’t they?
YOU WHO—or YOO HOO?
Humanity searches distant planets for evidence of life.
We marvel at the possibility:
What would it look like?
How would it live?
Why would it exist?
Yet an equally great mystery waits inside you.
Instead of searching only outside, enter the vastness within.
Who are you?
What were you given?
What have you learned?
What remains undeveloped?
What is calling you forward?
The mystery of YOU may require your entire lifetime to explore.
Then again—that may be what life is for.
PEARLS INSIGHT
A full life is not necessarily one filled with the most things.
It is one in which the person was present for what mattered.
Time gives life duration.
Purpose gives it direction.
Love gives it depth.
Sacrifice gives it meaning.
Gratitude allows us to recognize all four.
RICHIE SPEAKS
Stop waiting for someone to announce that your life may begin.
The announcement was made when you took your first breath.
Stop standing behind an imaginary line while your turn passes in front of you.
Use what you have.
Love who is here.
Develop what is within you.
Share what you have learned.
And bring yesterday’s wisdom into today’s opportunity.
FINAL SAY
Life called your number.
You answered by arriving.
Now step forward.
It is your turn.
Live like it!
— Richie
Pearls for the Soul
when you feed the soul, you feed everything.
https://pearlsforthesoul.com
Been expecting you