Why are we alive?

Do you ever feel like you're in that awkward limbo state where you constantly alternate between tolerating most aspects of your life and believing you're a hopeless piece of crap? 

(I know I know I just started a blog post with a bold question so sue me)

Yeah me too. On that cheery note, welcome back to the blog, folks! :) I haven't posted in a while, but we're snowed in (Georgia and ice do not mix. Actually most roads in the world and ice do not mix), and I feel like I've been living in these self-imposed doldrums since 2013 ended. But there have been little moments of realization, and I really want to share these with you all in the hopes that someone else in the same tire swing of dissatisfaction may find the strength to stop the downward flush. (It's all a vicious cycle, everything is a vicious cycle, you all know this by now.)

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Always swinging , always too hypnotizing to stop, always slightly uncomfortable.

Figuring out how to enjoy life properly sometimes can take a conscious effort (it did for me, anyway). Our lives are programmed to be incredibly myopic:

wake up, hit snooze, wake up, hit snooze, actually wake up, insert caffeine into body, read about things that happened in the past 24 hours, commute somewhere while thinking about something that you will likely forget within the next month, do some work that needs to be completed within 24 hours, worry about the next 24 hours, go home, do more work that you will likely forget within a month, go on the internet to distract from the burden of work due in like 5 hours (bc it's 4am HAHA but really)

I mean, I don't know how well the above schedule applies to everyone, but the point is the same. So much of our lives is focused on results; we work to produce measurable output, concrete evidence of our success. It's so so easy to lose sight of your life and what you ultimately want it to mean. We lose track of not just our lives, but humanity as a whole; I find myself a bit startled when I come across timelines of earth's history and see the literal blip that is human life.We are very transient things; a human life is just some tens of years, maybe a hundred if you're lucky. What's that? Just a breath, an inhale on the geological time scale. 

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But we are all a part of this incredible human experience and we are all alive (I mean if you're reading this right now them I assume so) and a few decades is enough to do practically anything that Earth will allow. So,while I rode my snowed-in tire swing of self-doubt, I kept asking: What do I want my life to give to humanity? What, besides insurance money and crappy yearbook photos, do I want to leave behind after I die?

Steve Roggenbuck (internet poet and slammin' human being if you haven't heard of him) gave a really good answer with his video. 

(The video is focused on the role of poetry, but I think his message makes sense to everyone.)

It can be anything for anyone; do you want to make life better for people who don't have the resources to do so themselves? Do you want to teach? Do you want to inspire people, give them confidence? Do you want to make words and art that last longer than you do?

I agree with Steve; I think we are here to change each other's lives. If I can change someone's mind about something forever with my words, then I've lived. And that makes the assignments due tomorrow a little easier to handle. 

Enjoy loveliness
and always always remember to muse. <3