Freelancing to Freedom

A friend of mine celebrated her birthday this weekend in a beautiful home in the Rockies, and it was the perfect weekend getaway. At one point during the festivities, I decided to step away for a few minutes of quiet and solitude. Wine in hand, I lay down on the grass in a secluded area of the yard and just gazed at the stars, which I don’t get to see much of in Calgary.

Nothing like stargazing to make you ponder your existence. Yep, I’m pulling out the big guns for the blog this week and tackling the meaning of life. Just kidding. I’m not going to pretend I have anything close to the answer, but I did have a moment of clarity: we have very limited days to fill with that which is meaningful to us.

This was no shocking revelation, as I’ve obviously always known this, but I realized it on a much deeper level that night. Regardless of how you choose to spend your days, life is going to continue moving forward, with or without you. We can’t control the big picture. The universe functioned before you arrived, and it will function after you’ve left. What we can control is how much we enjoy our limited time.

So why wouldn’t we choose careers that fulfill us and allow us to live the types of lifestyles we want? Why wouldn’t we choose to spend time with the people who mean the most to us? To forgive those who have hurt us? To smile? In the end, where does anger and blame and stress get you? It leaves you wishing at the end of your days that you had focused your energy on the things that would have brought you peace.

Take control of your happiness, because no one else will – they have their own meaning of life to worry about – and because my favourite cliché becomes more and more apparent to me as each year goes by: life is short.

Song of the week:  “I Got You Babe” – Bahamas

Namaste 🙂

Rachel