The great affair, the love affair with life,
is to live as variously as possible,
to groom one’s curiosity like a high-spirited thoroughbred,
climb aboard, and gallop over the thick, sun-struck hills every day…
It began in mystery, and it will end in mystery,
but what a savage and beautiful country lies in between.
by Diane Ackerman, “found poetry” from A Natural History of the Senses
What enables being alive to feel like a love affair with life? Some moments, some days can feel like that to me, but I’ve also lived moments where it’s felt more like I imagine a prison sentence might feel like, and many days where it’s something in between. So how to live more like the poet, writer and naturalist Diane Ackerman is inviting us to do?
Living as ‘variously’ as possible, evokes a sense of embracing things beyond my known comfortzone, seeking out adventures and opening up to different perspectives. And combining that with ‘grooming one’s curiosity like a high-spirited thoroughbred’, it gives rise to an flavour of living life fully awake, like other poets I’ve enjoyed invite us to do. I’m thinking of Toyohiko Kagawa when he prays to never find himself ‘yawning at life’, and Mary Oliver when she says she wants to live her life like a ‘bride to amazement’, or when Derek Wallcot urges us to ‘feast on your life’… and there are many more. And also Jim Carrey’s movie Yes Man comes to mind, where his withdrawn character tries out saying yes to everything (although he discovers that some discernment is important alongside that spirit of up-for-it-ness!).
An awareness of the nearness of death can do it too, the knowing that we have a limited time on this bright planet and with the precious people around us…
So it’s a practice! Something to remind myself of in my intentions for the day. Mindfulness and curiosity go hand in hand, so continuing to grow in mindfulness also encourages to explore the ‘savage and beautiful country’ of this life!
PS … and adventuring together is always more fun! There’s a new level 1 Mindfulness course about to start, and there’s also the Living Well to Die Well course which can inspire living to the full…
Photo by Margarida Afonso on Unsplash
