A good life
For the last couple of months I've been, as my beloved Rilke says, living the question of: "what is a good life?"
Often we say we want to have a good life, and yet I wonder how many of us are willing to sit in the inquiry of what good actually means to us.
I urge you, if it resonates, to feel into your own answer to that question - let your heart and soul contribute to your exploration for I have a feeling that is where the real answer arises from.
Although I sense a good life feels and looks different not only person to person, but also in various moments of one's own existence, I felt called to share some of my reflexions with the hope you find them helpful in finding your own...
A good life is not necessarily one with a happy beginning, middle or end.
It’s not one in which everything always goes our way, or there is a constant state of joy, ease and flow.
A good life is one that is lived fully.
It's one that has been inhabited with as much loving presence and attention as was available at any given moment.
It’s one where we’ve given ourselves (along with our heart, body and soul) to the experiences that make our life.
It includes pain and discomfort and failure and confusion and longing and paradox.
It invites to venture into intimate relationships with friends, partners, siblings, neighbours and the multitudes that live within us.
It holds love so profound we’re certain heartbreak could kill us.
A good life is rich, plump, deep and worn.
It has been stretched by people, scratched by places and humbled by the human condition.
It contains mind, emotions, intuition and skin.
It includes being tenderised, and perhaps learning to cultivate something akin to acceptance, kindness and contentment… we might even learn to recognise the divine in the ordinary - if we’re lucky.
A good life is one in which we have spectacular falls because we have spectacular bravery to jump to the unknown with a cry.
It's one in which we take the risk of opening with shaky hands, to know and be known.
A good life is one in which we have been touched, squeezed and changed by it all.
A good life is one in which we leave our blood, sweat, tears, and laughter on the dance floor.
A good life says “I did my best”.
It's one in which we dare meet life and the moment, with all it contains, to the best of our abilities.
A good life is not given, it is chosen and created.
A good life is a tale of the epic courage required to be fully alive.