Live your life: Don't wait for someone to tell you how to do it.

I was always taught to live with eternity in mind, to live life backwards.  If you live with the end in sight, and you know what you want to look back on, then you will be more focused on what you want to get out of life instead of merely living a life.

A photo from my private collection.  I love cemeteries.  I love to look at the artistry memorial of the individual that lived.  The places I have visited have shown either how people lived or how well they died.  One of my thesis in college surrounded the idea of a "Good Death."

I don't say this lightly, or to be ghoulish, or anything of that sort, but merely to show that there is more to life than the general life everyone assumes we will take.

That's what's so fabulous about being taught how to live with eternity in sight, to live life backwards, to be able to think what you actually want to accomplish rather than having to make room for what you want to accomplish.  I set out early in life a desire to travel, and can say that I've done that.  I set out to learn different cultures and language.  Done that.  Educate myself to be able to give my children (or legacy) a better start in life.  Done.  And have found out who I am and find balance in all that.  My trips to cemeteries continue my journey to enjoy rare or alternative art, and a lot of people miss that a cemetery has art in it. 

So, the point I'm making, is to get out there and live your life.  Don't be afraid that your dreams will end up in a trashcan, or be the subject of ridicule.  They assuredly will be questioned, no matter what, but who cares.  I've traveled to some countries that were considered dangerous, and before I went I knew that if the Good Lord wanted to call me home, then so be it.  Live life with reckless abandon.

The point I'm not endorsing is the "let life happen to you."  Don't be the one that didn't know what they wanted to accomplish, so they got with a guy, then got pregnant and just ended up having to work for the future, rather than making their future.  I see so many that succumb to just letting life happen, including sex, drugs and alcoholism, and then when they finally get their head clear again, their future is destroyed. 

If you can get a hold of your dreams early on, you'll know where you want to go from there.  If you don't, then you will become a "leaf in the winds of other men's plans."