Live Large And …
My pal John Hafer uses an expression that I like, “live LARGE”. Actually I like it alot. I like the concept even more when it’s translated to actions. I like that it’s so expansive and spacious in describing the range of possibilities for its expression in my life. And I reckon you should too.
Now if Shakespeare were alive today, he’d be a happening guy, thankfully for us he lives still in the legacy of his works, quote he:
“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.”
–From As You Like It (II, vii, 139-143)
In quieter moments have you ever felt overwhelmed by a pusillanimous thought that your life is so small as to be insignificant? Have you ever felt compelled to compare it to someone elses? Seems sometimes I’ve met an inordinate number of people who’ve lost their mob (aboriginal meaning ‘where do you belong’).
Have you been making comparisons lately? I’ve a word of advice for you. Never compare but value what is yours. Is yours a LARGE life? Then value your LARGE life. Is it a SMALL life? Then value your SMALL life.
The great paradox in life is that a large life can soon become a small life and a small life grown in the right soil conditions can become a large life. Tell me honestly, what’s the point of living your whole life wishing it were someone elses, that my friend would be a terrible waste of a life, yours mainly.
But from time to time, I think there’s merit in asking yourself this, “what have I done with the life I’ve been given?”
However mundane you think it is, however everyday you believe it is, however few bells and whistles you feel you might have, comparisons are for analysis, literature studies, integrative biology and the like, not for people. But we can all ‘live LARGE’ where we are.
So thanks for the advice Hondo, I will try to live LARGER while still appreciating my smaller beginnings, that’s a key right there and I believe Shakespeare also said, wisely, “This above all, to thine own self be true”
