09/17/2023
Showing Up for Life
To show up for life ---What does that really mean? Showing up has many forms. It is physical, mental, and emotional. Let’s look at the basic definition --“Show Up” means to reveal, appear, arrive, attend, or to be visible. For me, showing up is being present, participating, and truly living life. Abraham Lincoln said it best, “And in the end, it’s not the years of your life that count, it’s the life in your years”. This is about showing up. One can’t really live without showing up. Sometimes we have capacity limits based on what is going on in our life and that’s ok. We still need to show up. See it as a sliding scale. Showing up to life on some days looks very different than showing up on others. All in all, it is an action, an attitude, and a choice.
We have a choice to show up or not. If we choose to show up, we never know what we're going to get. Sure there is the possibility of an unwanted experience. However, 9 times out of 10, we will get a new perspective, a rich life experience, a moment we will never forget, and most of all a chance to live in the NOW!
IT’S ALL GOOD.
Showing up gives us an opportunity to get something that we may never have thought possible. There is a clean slate of endless possibilities. Let’s face it, if we don’t show up, we can’t participate and be truly connected to people, to nature, to the world. Showing up can look differently to each person. Yet, there is a universal launching point for all people. We have to be willing to interact and make a choice to show up no matter what it looks like.
So what does it look like to show up? We will know. All we have to do is follow our gut and embrace the opportunity right in front of us. What can we receive if we show up? Surprisingly, more than what we get if we don't. Here are a few experiences that can happen if we choose to show up.
Showing up to para-sailing in Mexico and we can experience what it might feel like to be a bird flying in the sky (which by the way is one of the most calming, peaceful places ever). Showing up to do volunteer work and we can discover a new vocation or new direction to take our life. Showing up to scuba diving and we can swim with tropical fish capturing nature’s beauty in the depths of the ocean. Showing up to a conversation with a homeless person and we can get a life lesson we never expected. Showing up to white water rafting, we can receive our first time rush from going over the pounding rapids. Showing up to a Turkey Trot Run and we can finish a 5 mile run that we never before thought possible. Showing up and saying hello to a taxi cab driver and we can receive a timely philosophy that will offer us a mind shift or some validation that is just what the doctor ordered. Just by showing up to a networking event, we can make life changing friendships. As a result of showing up to jury duty, we can end up on a date with another rejected juror or we can make fast friends and start a movie club from the members that participated on a jury with us. There are many more examples of showing up. It all starts with making a choice to say yes and showing up. Who knows??? We might actually live the experience of smoking the ho**ah pipe and belly dancing.
So for what it's worth, showing up will always provide us with something. Whether it is a life changing experience, a new relationship, an adventure, a life lesson, a surprising conversation, a new direction, a needed answer or a new perspective --by showing up for life-- we learn, feel, grow, live, and love.
You never know! Have courage and go do it! Show up!
IT'S ALL GOOD
