EVERYONE LIVES, NOT EVERYONE IS TRULY ALIVE

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.

                                                                                                   -Abraham Lincoln

I had one of THOSE moments last week. The moments that some spend their whole lives yearning for, the moments that some experience now and again, the moments that some are lucky enough to experience regularly.

I was on the back of a motorbike, in 35°C heat, wind blowing through my hair, the smell of the ocean lingering in the air; and the expectation of gliding along the face of a wave for the first time in nearly five months. In that moment I was truly alive.

It got me to thinking though. I have made a series of decisions in the last few months and years that lead me to that particular euphoric moment. It seems that the search for new happiness means overlooking a lot of familiar happinesses also; something I believe many people are afraid to do.

Of course, giving up those familiar happinesses is overwhelming at times. For me it meant leaving behind my job, my family, my friends, my girlfriend – all the comforts and safety of Aotearoa.

On Christmas Day I would have given nearly anything to be sitting at the dinner table with a forkful of baked ham and Grandma’s cheesy potatoes in hand, enjoying that familiar family banter. Instead I was nursing stomach parasites and enduring numerous power cuts. When I sit watching the stunning sunset over an erupting volcano Fuego, there is just one young woman with whom I would want to share that moment with. Instead I fetch my camera and record the moment in its physical rather than emotional demonstration.

And for what did I give up those familiar happinesses? The answer is simple – the pursuit of THOSE moments. THOSE moments, those new happinesses when I am truly alive. I don’t know when or where the next one will be, or what form it will take; but I know that by the decisions I have made, its creation is already in motion. And in that I find all the comfort and safety I need.

But most importantly:

Are you expecting one of THOSE moments anytime soon – to be truly alive?

So what are you going to do about it?