On Living and Giving

Life is too short. Beyond the physical of the actual passage of time being short, there is also the phenomenon of time passing faster as you get older. I feel like the older I get, the faster time seems to go. Already, January is almost over, and I’m 1/12th of the way through the year.

Because of the pandemic, and starting grad school starting right as the pandemic happened, and then the second I finished grad school my life fell apart, I feel as though I haven’t done as much living or giving.

I went to an author talk this evening (hence the late blog post), and I was recounting to the friend I brought along that I had become an annual donor to the theatre we were attending so I could get advanced tickets to the event.

The event was lovely, by the way. It was warm and kind and filled with hope, and one of the things that makes me feel like I’m alive. And that’s why I’m reflecting on living and giving this evening.

So much of my life is centered around giving. I serve others on a daily basis, and this has lead to a deep sense of wanting to give and give and give until there isn’t anything left of me.

But to refill my cup, I have to start living. I have to start going places and filling my life with things that are valuable and important to me. And I have to do this for a variety of reasons. I don’t want to get to the end of my life and feel like I didn’t do anything with it. And it is so easy to let my life pass me by. I let it pass me by for years. I “acheived” everything I was supposed to acheive: the career, the masters degree, the home purchase. And I was miserable.

But now, I truly want to center living and giving.

How I’m prioritizing Living and Giving:

• Saying “yes”: Shonda Rhimes had it right with her “Year of Yes.” Sometimes, the adventure of life comes from saying yes more, and worrying less about whether it makes sense to say yes as often as you do.
• Getting two tickets: Sure, you can go to something alone, but why do that when you could share the experience with someone else? I always get two tickets to things, just so I have the priveledge of sharing an experience with someone. This usually means getting two “cheap” tickets, but I feel like it’s better to have company than to go alone.
• Not Caring: This is hard for me. I care so much about perception and about what other people think. But living life to the fullest and giving what I can to the world also means not caring as much about what other people think.
• Finding the Joy: This is hard these days. The general “everything” can make it incredibly hard to find the joy in the world. But finding the joy can mean a lot of things. I find joy in creating, from video editing to writing to junk journaling, all of these things are bringing me joy, and investing time into these things is leaving me more fulfilled than before.

How do you prioritize living your life and giving to others?

Thank you for reading. If you liked this post, please give it a “like!”

-M

PS: I have a YouTube channel where I talk about books! Click here if you are interested in following.

PPS: Did you catch my last blog post? If not, click here to check it out.