Have you met life today?

The thought of this topic came from a tagline of Metlife. I find this line to be so inspirational. For me, “Have you met life today?” is the perfect topic for today.

What is meeting life? Is it just that we are alive so we have met life? Or is it the ‘liveliness’ within that talks to meeting life?

When I think of life, I think of energy and movement. I think of liveliness, laughter and love. I think of breath. I think of the beating heart and I think of warm and tender hugs.

I asked this question to my mom. Her answer was deep. She feels she has met life when she is creating something – a poem, an idea, a song and an exquisite dish or when she hears music or when she meets a friend suddenly or when she is centered and feels His presence. My dad on the other hand feels he has met life when he sees beauty in nature. A beautiful sunrise, the sound of a melodious stream, a blooming lotus or a genuine smile.

I am always intrigued at how people make choices specially in terms of meeting life. How have people around me met life? I have seen a 24-year-old wasting life in drugs and I have seen a 60-year-old taking dialysis every week with a smile and celebrating life. I have seen a 40-year-old, detected with cancer, living each day and meeting life right now, in the present. And I have seen my own 7-year-old celebrating and at times sulking at life.

As I introspect these and many other lives, I hope I can meet life gracefully, graciously and gratefully and I hope I can meet the ‘life-force’ of life in this lifetime.