Do You Feel Fully Alive or Mostly Dead? You’re Not Alone.

 

I believe Mother Earth smiles the most during spring. During this glorious season of rebirth and renewal my senses come alive with the perfume of blooming flowers, the squishiness of the mud between my toes, the melody of the wind’s song, and vastness of the clear blue sky. My enthusiasm soars along with my heart as nature demands my appreciation for her labors.

It hasn’t always been like this for me. I lost my ability to smell, touch, see, hear, and taste the world during my adulthood, until cancer entered my life and reminded me to savor the gift of being alive. It wasn’t that I had chosen to shut myself down; I had just gotten into the habit of living in my mind, and my mind was so full of stuff that it hadn’t noticed how dull and lifeless my world had become.

“If we had keen vision and feeling for all ordinary human life it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of the roar which lies on other side of silence,” says George Eliot. I agree. If we don’t see, touch, smell, taste, and hear the world around us, are we really alive, or are we just existing?

One of my favorite quotes is “In every moment, the quality of your life is on the line. In each, you are either fully alive or relatively dead,” from Dan Millman. Facing cancer made me realize I was relatively dead. Using all of my senses brought me back to life.

Where do you stand? Ask yourself, “On a scale of 1 to 10, how alive do I feel?” Do you feel like the walking dead, fully alive, or somewhere in between?

Want to raise your number? Step outside and fill your senses with spring. Your aliveness will grow as you focus on breathing and notice what you see, smell, touch, hear and taste. In celebration of Earth Day, express your gratitude to Mother Earth by wallowing in her beauty.