Being Alive

"People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life.  I don't think that's what we're really seeking.  I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive." Joseph Campbell

The experience of being alive.  Seems odd, doesn't it?, to consider that we are seeking an experience of being alive --- when, we are, after all, alive.  But, are we really?   Sometimes I think that the vampire and zombie books and movies remain popular because they depict a state that most of us humans are in day-to-day.  Not really alive  --  the walking dead.  If we are not present to the present moment, and I just listened to a dvd by Dr. Lipton who says that 95-98% of the time we are not present, then we are not fully alive.  Perhaps Joseph Campbell is saying the same thing.  We must wake up to our lives in order to enjoy them.  In recent days I have felt stressed because I had so many life-business tasks to do, and I had not had time to do them.  All those phone calls to follow up on, all those bills and billings to process.  Yesterday I had time open up for me, and it was astonishing how much I got done.  I even started the quilt for my grandson for his graduation!  I was present to the tasks at hand, and I had the gift of time.  It was an experience of being alive, and it was so gratifying.