Wanted: Alive!

I was walking down the street in NYC the other day and the word ALIVE jumped out at me from a sign.  I don’t recall the reference, as I was in my usual city rush, but the word alive bounced around in my head for the remainder of my journey.

Alive.  What does it mean?

My immediate thought was the old Post Office notices of notorious criminals…or the movie magic of the Wild West, where bandits were routinely “Wanted: Dead or Alive.”

Wanted – Dead or Alive (Photo credit: twm1340)

Is alive the opposite of dead?

Being alive is a biological and scientific state…that of having life….of being born, of blooming.  A tree is alive.  An animal is alive.  A person is alive. 

But what does it mean – from a spiritual and emotional perspective – to be alive.  Does it mean the ability to think?  Does it mean the act of feeling?  Or is it more creative and intangible than that?

When a person experiences great joy or excitement (or fear for that matter), you may sometimes hear them utter the common phrase, “I never felt so alive.”  That their nerve endings were on fire…that they felt the blood rushing through their veins…that they felt full, complete.  It’s that powerful source – that inner fireplace that burns hot when stoked by imagination or activity.

Being alive is a privilege to me.  There is no greater reminder of what it is to be alive than when facing our own mortality, or the mortality of others.  It’s then that we see the dividing line between what it is to be physically alive….and to be full-out living. 

There are days when I’m just grateful for having gotten through the day – when I’m tired, or annoyed, or just plain old stressed out.  And there are most days, when I want to be open to living – to experience all that there is in being alive.

I believe that this is a common human desire.  That too many of us feel that our lives and our time is going at lightning speed.  We want to catch up and slow down all at the same moment.  We yearn to experience the pleasures that being alive offers.

It’s hard, I know.  It’s not easy to feel so alive when we are compressed by the pressures of daily life.  But as long as we are aware that living is not the opposite of dying….that being alive is the full expression of what it means to live…then we are destined to never be that Western outlaw.

Live it up. – BB