My dear friend’s 19 year old niece Carolyn died last month after battling cancer. Soon after, her mom, finding comfort sitting in her daughter’s room, found a list of life goals that Carolyn had compiled. I didn’t know Carolyn personally but upon reading her life goals I came to peer in on a wise soul who too quickly left the earth plane but not before she taught us a profound lesson about the joy that life holds.
Carolyn’s life goals speak of a spirit of adventure and a desire to explore the beauties of the world. They reflect a curiosity about the complexities of religion and an appreciation of both classical and pop music. They are testimony to her concern and compassion for humanity and the joy that she experienced peering into the heavens. They tell the story of a life cut short before all dreams were realized.
As I read Carolyn’s life goals I reflected on my own goals at the young age of 19. Like so many others, I remember being extremely focused on what I would DO with my life – career goals. But unlike Carolyn I had not yet developed a mature sense of how I preferred to experience life. Decades later I came to understand that I had been conditioned to become a ‘HUMAN DOING’. Reading Carolyn’s life goals it was clear that she had a strong sense that she was a ‘HUMAN BEING’; she understood that life was an experience to have and to enjoy.
What about you? Have you discovered the difference between life as a ‘HUMAN DOING’ and life as a ‘HUMAN BEING’?
Carolyn hoped to gaze upon the Northern Lights and complete a Messier Marathon – an organized attempt by amateur astronomers to find galaxies, nebulae and star clusters in the night sky. How about you? Have you taken the time to peer into the night sky? Do you allow yourself to ponder the enormity of it all? Can you place your own life in the grandness of a Universe that stretches on to infinity? Or is your life so full of tasks and responsibilities that there is barely time to catch your breath let alone gaze into the heavens? Are you so busy or successful at being a ‘HUMAN DOING’ that you’ve yet to realize the fullness of life as a ‘HUMAN BEING’?
Whatever your life goals, try to remember to prioritize BEING over DOING! Take time to satisfy your curiosity, to fuel your spirit of adventure, to explore far and wide, to read the great books, to listen to the great composers or dance to the greatest hits of the past decades! Take time for whatever it is that captures your interest, nurtures your spirit and fills you with joy.
Many of us prayed for Carolyn before she died and now I hope she is praying for all of us – praying that we come to understand or never forget that life has countless joys to experience. Life is not a job to be accomplished, completed or endured. True, this is the Earth School and there are myriad lessons to learn. But above all else life is a precious gift to be experienced with fervor and joy.
If being a ‘HUMAN DOING’ is getting in the way of living fully as a ‘HUMAN BEING’ then perhaps Carolyn’s life goals might inspire you as well. At the top of her life goals, Carolyn inserted they must be “experiential not materialistic, difficult but not impossible to achieve”. I venture to add that implicit in Carolyn’s life goals was a deep understanding that each day is precious and should be embraced and lived to the fullest despite adversity or challenge.