John O “Donohue tells us in Anam Cara, “You were sent here to live life to the full everything that awakens in us and everything that comes towards us.” Such an astounding idea in a culture where repression of our natural being in the world is so widely encouraged. It’s such a freeing, soul fulfilling, true thing to consider.

When I think of what it means to embrace all that awakens in us, I think of my Mom. Despite an impoverished childhood and partly because she was a voracious reader, her passion for life and beauty and adventure was awakened. Fiercely independent, she courageously moved towards what sparked her curiosity and senses.

My Mom at the race course at Seal Point.

One of her favorite adventures was taking lessons in racing at Seal Point. She loved to drive fast and as a result of this experience, she was a confident, skillful and zippy driver.

Another profound adventure for her was sky diving. After several jumps, she relaxed into the joy of it so much that she describes suddenly loosing all sense of any boundaries between her self and The Everything. She felt complete peace and joy, at one with the cosmos and timeless..so she was late in situating for the land, squashing her tail bone. That was her last jump but not the last of her adventures. Many years later, at the end of her life, I asked her if she was afraid. “No”, she said, “I think it will be just like that last jump. I’ll be at one with the cosmos, off to my next adventure.”

I’m not adventurous the same way as my Mom. My spark is more interior. For me, it is an adventure to go deep, to witness both the visible and the invisible, to explore meaning and purpose. My interior and exterior landscape is an endless source of inspiration and experience. In my own way, I hope to approach my life with the same fearlessness that I witnessed from my Mom…but without the travel.

I am fascinated by the idea that our uniqueness, our purpose is to allow this awakening to move us towards what only each individual can experience and express in our lived life. It allows me to see everyone as an expression of this process of awakening. Every soul reaching for it’s expression in this life.

Living Life to the Full