Have you ever been enjoying a TV show and looked at the clock and said, "Oh No, it'll be over in 10 minutes"? If you are focused on endings, you miss the essence of living.

Comedian, Martin Mull used to room with fellow comedian, Steve Martin before they enjoyed fame. Mull said he would go through the trash to see what jokes Steve wrote and threw away. Here's one of them: "We sure did have a great time tonight; too bad we're all gonna' die someday."

Some offer the totally accurate view that we are dying from the minute we first draw breath. Don't invite them to your parties. Their focus is on endings, rarely the moment they're in.

Beginning to live begins with an awareness of the present moment. What is happening now? Now is always the launch point for living.

Those who prepare a bucket list are focused on endings. The question we rarely ask is: "What aliveness can I experience right now?"

Living with aliveness doesn't have to be grandiose. Small things are loaded with life and they are always happening - a child's smile, a warm hug, a kind word.

The best story I ever heard about appreciating the aliveness of now is attributed to NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) co-founder, Richard Bandler when counseling a woman who vacuumed excessively. She would get upset that her children would make footprints in her freshly vacuumed rug and then vacuum again and again to make the carpets perfect.

Bandler just engaged the woman's imagination about endings to get her back to living now. He said something like, "Imagine that your carpet without any footprints means that your house is empty and your children are grown and gone." That's all it took for her to begin appreciating now.

Some of the most now focusing words I've ever heard are: "This too shall have an outcome." All things come to an end. The Buddha taught us about the impermanence of life. The lesson wasn't to dread endings, but to cherish the current moments.

A fatalistic viewpoint can only be countered by living now.

"What can I do today that celebrates aliveness?" can serve as our awaking mantra. It can set the tone for a day filled with recognition rather than the limitation of time limits.

The next time you're tempted to walk around with a placard that reads, "The End Is Coming," shift your focus to the aliveness of the moment you're in. It's a matter of life or death!

All the best,

John