This one Life.

There are a lot of quotes and books and movies with message about living life to the fullest. About making the most of the one life that we're all lucky enough to have. I think about it a lot and lately have been asking myself the question "is this life the one I dreamed?"

Sure, no life will be perfect. But if I have this one chance to do something meaningful with my life, this one chance to treat myself and others in such a way that the world is left just a little bit better place - am I living the life I dreamed? The things I fill my days with are the things that I will ultimately fill my life with as the years go by. Which means that the things I do each day - everything from the way I spend my time to the food I put in my body to the work I do in my job - are the things that will ultimately define how I spent this Life.

Is this life the one I dreamed? If not, why? And if so, how am I showing my gratitude each day?

Thanks to Mary Oliver for so beautifully expressing her thoughts on this subject.

When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it is over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.

- Mary Oliver

(Many thanks to my friend Rachel LaCour for sharing this quote with me.)