This One Life

For weeks now, the phrase, “You get this one life. How do you want to live it? How do you want to be embodied in it?” has been plaguing my mind, heart, and soul. It pops into my head when I wake in the morning, when I sleepily tug my oversized sweater over my pajamas, and wander into my front room to make the day’s first cup of tea. It pops into my head as I walk outside for the first time that day, heading towards the dumpster so I can dump my trash, and it trails after me as I wander to the parking lot and get into my car to head to a coffee shop. It swirls into my head as I nervously begin an afternoon run. It sits in the front of my mind each time I open up my laptop to do some work. Over and over it challenges me to stop, look at my life, and ponder “how do I want to live this one, rare, and precious life?” 

I have been writing long enough now to know when a phrase sticks around this long it desires to be written, to be creatively played with, to be analyzed, and to be wrestled with. As much as I have tried to ignore the phrase, it simply would not be content being shoved into a back corner of my mind. I have started two documents before landing on this third one. The blank page always holds a tinge of mystery and intimidation. The first two attempts left me disappointed and frustrated—but that phrase, it keeps poking at me. It keeps challenging me to actually pause and considerhow I want to spend this one, wild, and precious life I have been gifted.

When I think of how I want to spend it; I realize I want to spend it writing. I want to spend this life documenting the things I love, the things that cause me to stop and marvel, the things that cause my heart to break into a million pieces because of the sheer beauty or even the pain. I want to slow down, to breathe deeply, to settle into right here and right now. I want to stop wishing away my time and to learn to be in the depths of the waiting period, content to simply be while hopefully expectant for what is to come. I want to look around me at this big world I live in and give thanks. I want to find all those big, bold, life changing events and express gratitude but I also want to focus on the small, mundane, everyday activities and be just as thankful. 

I want to spend this life running, jumping, skipping, and playing. I want to throw my head back and laugh. I want to close my eyes and pray, fully pray with all of my heart. I want to encounter the Divine in any and every way. I want to eat seedy toast, with peanut butter, and bananas on top. I want to drink a copious amount of tea with people I love. I want to be present; to focus, listen, and hear the people I am in conversation with. And for goodness sakes, I do not want to frantically rush from one thing to the next. 

I want to read, write, love, laugh, and live. I want to be fully present to this one, wild, and precious life I have been gifted. Too often, I allow fear, anxiety, worry, distrust, and self-hatred hold me back from stepping fully into an authentically embodied life. It is time to try something a little bit different. It is time to see if I can live in the way that Brené Brown calls “wholehearted living.” It is time to see if I can be thankful for every seemingly small and insignificant thing, in the ways Ann Voskamp discovered. It is time to see if there actually is magic in the ordinary as my favorite magazine, Bella Grace, states. It is time to see if being still and trusting God (Psalm 46:10) is truly the best way to live.

Friends, we get one life and I hope that this realization runs through your mind, challenging your every moment, urging you to sit down and truly reflect on how you want to spend this one, wild, and precious life. And I hope that you come to some truly rich and beautiful decisions on how you will continue to embody your precious life.

Grace, Peace, Blessings, and all my Love,

Margaret