Saturday, January 11, 2025
One of the most famous lines in The Shawshank Redemption was “get busy dying or get busy living.” Can’t you sense that pull/push in you each morning? I tend to wake up in a fog of both sleep and wakefulness. I need to tip the scale, and each day is an opportunity to gravitate towards aliveness. Having the sun touch your body first thing is helpful.
I feel many of us live in this vague mid-range between sleep and wakefulness. We drudge through our day, we paw at our routines, and we never move beyond the catatonic state of being 80% asleep and 20% awake at best. Even worse are college students, who are merely .05% awake! I want to encourage you to move towards more aliveness. We tend to “pay” for life rather than to generate it. It is merely a perception of tipping the scale or reversing the charges. Do you give into the pull of sleepiness and drudgery or do you “take charge” and move towards zest, aliveness, and zing? This is your choice, daily.
If sleep is pulling you, you’re busy dying. It’s not a collect call to get busy living, but you must dig for it on a spiritual level. I start each day reminding myself I am zesty, alive, and enthused. I start by getting clear on wanting to be a positive person. Then I go for an invigorating walk, and do things that put me in the state of dwelling positivity. Then, once the scale is tipped and the charges reversed, I stay in that positive slant for most of the day. It’s so much better than being in a fog and being pulled toward the negativity and drudgery most people are fogged up in. Tip the scale and get busy living. Not everyone is doing that. Be different. Join me.