This is how you live your life
One life. One chance. Live it like this.
Today is Sunday.
That doesn’t mean a break from writing. I vowed to write every day. I am sticking to that till the end of my life now. Come hell or high water I am putting my pen on the paper every damn day.
I source my ideas from newsletters of great authors like David Perell, James Clear, The Marginalian by Maria Popova, etc. This is an endless source as I have literally loads of articles from these newsletters just sitting in my mailbox. I can go back and read them all now with the goal of inspiring myself for my articles.
Each article is a gem and I am inspired every time I read them.
So, today I was reading one of the newsletters of James Clear and I found this marvelous quote about taking risks.
In her novel, The Painted Drum, writer Louise Erdrich discusses taking risks:
Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and being alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You have to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes too near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself that you tasted as many as you could.
How beautifully the author has described this in her own words!
The author says the above words about taking risks but this can easily be interpreted about the meaning of life as well.
Feel everything that life has to offer. Then be proud that you tasted the full palette.
Isn’t that what life is meant for?
We search long and wide about the meaning of life but the simple meaning of life is to experience it.
Take as many risks as you can. Wander as far as you can and find out all that there is to know about this wonderful creation.
Lay waste to your inhibitions. Break the mental barriers and patterns in your mind that you can’t do something. Destroy your fears. Surprise yourself and the people around you.
Wake up early and feel that bright morning sunlight on your face.
Stay up late someday and look up at the stars twinkling in the space.
Talk to that person that you secretly like. Ask them out. If they refuse, politely back away in grace.
Be kind always. Everyone’s fighting their own battles in this world. Some don’t let it come to their face.
See, I just took a risk by rhyming those last 3–4 lines, and it turned out to be okayish? I don’t give a damn. It felt awesome to rhyme.
And that’s the essence.
Take risks. If they don’t pan out, you learn. If they do, well, then great.
But one thing is for sure, you would become like that veteran, filled with stories to amaze and delight people. Maybe even more for yourself, as you sit by that apple tree.
I write on my blog daily. This is day 33 of my daily writing challenge for 2022. I write on whatever interests me. There is no word limit. I am doing this simply to become a better writer. Tag along and follow my journey as I write every single day for an entire year
