January 26, 2013 Saturday morning
Hello. Perhaps you wonder why I have chosen my blog name Glad To Be Alive. It’s not as obvious as you might think. Perhaps there are a lot of people who feel this way. I just have not been among them until very recently. I’ve been depressed, angry, and frustrated… about being here. I’ve become cynical about people. Frankly these things have not changed (much). But one thing has, I’ve become simply glad about being alive. And it has nothing to do with any of those other feelings. It’s not a happy feeling, just an appreciation. It feels like balance and it feels deep.
I was walking from Sprouts Grocery Store to my car when I noticed how my face was feeling. I could feel my frown and I was looking at the ground. I don’t know what came over me, but something did. I had an epiphany – a spiritual realization. I did not have to see that moment in that way. I could be glad, not sad, about just being there, about just walking, about just moving, about just breathing, seeing, feeling the ground with my feet, the sun on my hair. I could brighten up my expression and lift my vision up. See what was in front of me. I didn’t have to feel happy, just glad, to be alive.
My sister is a WordPress blogger (A Christian Overcomer) who has about a hundred followers. She and I talk about what life’s about. We grew up hearing our parents talk this way. She’s interesting and she says I’m interesting. She wanted me to write some of the things I share only with her. But I couldn’t do it without a name that represents my current approach to life which is what this weblog will be about. And I could not come up with one until several days ago. I woke up and a minute later I heard this name and I knew it was the right one. So then I knew it was time to start writing a weblog. It’s funny how things seem to work out. Sometimes I just know when the time is right.
If you read my weblog and then my sister’s – we are identical twins fifty-eight years old – you might notice how differently we seem to approach our lives. But there is something deeper that is the same. We both want to find what’s true. Her truth is often superficially different from mine, but really I don’t think it is fundamentally different.
Glad To Be Alive 