Live Life Deliberately

Live life deliberately.

A friend named her blog by this title, and every time I see it, it speaks truth to me. I don't know if she sees the phrase quite the way I do, and I know I don't fully live it the way I perceive it. But it encapsulates, in so few words, something I have always thought, something I think few people grasp, and something with a significance I just can't shake. Something about principle. Something about realizing that you are the one calling the shots in your life, even if only in your reactions to what is outside of your control. Something about magnifying that amazing part of the human soul or psyche that is making choices that can, at times, defy all opposition and exceed all expectation, the part that refuses to be completely bound by environmental or past limitations.

I may live too "deliberately" in some ways. In some cases, you must let go of the idea that you can or should control every step of your life. There are greater forces to yield to at times, greater perspective you have yet to obtain, greater opportunities and rewards in risking something. But even that choice to let go is deliberate on some level.

I believe everything we do is deliberate to some degree, even choosing not to adopt principles or to just "ride the wave" in life. Some things we do because we truly don't know better or because our upbringing has thoroughly programmed us. But I'm inclined to think most of what we do is quite deliberate, whether or not we care to own up to that fact and face the reality of our decisions.

While there is value in enjoying the moment and letting it fill your soul with intensity of emotion and in experiencing the richness life has to offer, my personal opinion is that most people's application of "live in the moment" is utterly hollow, selfish, hedonistic crap that destroys the beauty and significance of relationships and of life in general.

Hm. Sometimes, I do have firm opinions about things.