What are your thoughts on the concept of living a very long life?
It’s ironic for a woman who wishes death often for it seems more appealing, to find in those in between spaces that have light and joy to want more time. Time to play a favourite song, time to create, time to turn the pages of a good book, time to watch a plant grow, time to look idly up ahead into the green.
In my 40s I have learnt that you are not bound to be one specific person meant for one kind of job, one kind of love, one kind of life. That you are in fact capable of discovering a new way of life and a new way of looking into you to be creative and purposeful. So yes a long life is needed to find that hidden layer in you which is screaming to be let out and shine.
I know that I have much to see, discover and explore yet and that I haven’t begun to live and for that every little second means and holds value. Not to say I often spend copious amounts of time daydreaming but even in the daydreams lies an idea, a realistic dream.
I would like to live a long life for many a times I haven’t appreciated it’s darkness not realizing that there’s always light to be found not in the extraordinary but the simple mundane. I’d like to make up for those times where life didn’t seem worth living and eager to see what life still has to throw at me or the times it wants to embrace me.
I wish I have more of those moments where I find I want to learn something new or visit a place I’ve never been or even perhaps find hidden somewhere love. I don’t have a vision board for my life apart from knowing what I must do now. I hope the visions keep revealing themselves in small and significant ways.
I was very inspired when I read Ikigai and I believe your ikigai is not just one thing that helps you flow and through life the same. I believe our ikigai changes as we grow older and different things help us achieve a state of flow beautiful and serene. I’ve been a teacher all my life and I always thought there was nothing else that I could do or which brought me the same joy. Then in my sabbatical I found writing and my ikigai shifted and the way I lead my life did too.
I walked along a pathway
Tossed around by the wind
I stopped wanting
The life I had to breathe in
A tiny shoot in my garden
Some brushes and paint
A long beautiful walk
Reminded me
There’s more to life yet
Even though my life isn’t full yet
It is dipped in simple joys
And although I’m hoping for more wonder
I could keep living like this
For a hundred different years
A long life is good when you have a mince pie on your plate, some art supplies, a planner and a pen, a blog that you love, a song within your heart, a friend who thinks of you everyday, family that loves you, a book to cherish and a twinkle in your eye for what might still be.