Live it!

Maybe it’s Catalyst being, well, a Catalyst.

Or maybe it’s middle age creeping in and shouting “Get going!”

Or perhaps it’s God stirring my heart and whispering new thoughts into my ear.

In any case, I have that overwhelming sense that life is for the living right now. Not tomorrow, not later, not when the kids are out of the house or my home life is perfect or I finally clean out my closet. Now.

I don’t think I’m alone in that, either. Think about it:

• We live in a digital age where everything is available to us on a moment’s notice. I love it! As citizens, friends, consumers we are being trained to the world of now. It has its good points and its bad points, but for my purposes today, it at least encourages you to send that note via Facebook NOW, or arrange a meeting, or order what you needed, or start a blog, or start an organization.
• The latest recession has forced everyone to reconsider what really matters in life. As a collective, we’ve decided experiences and people matter more than things. This means we’re far more likely to stop in a coffee shop and strike up a conversation than we were even a year ago. We’re more likely to choose a novel experience — something that just can’t be downloaded — over another object we have to maintain.
• The internet has leveled the playing field and helped us realize that we “common” people can do extraordinary things with our lives. We don’t have to wonder who or what or where…we can do it ourselves.

Want an example of living now?

Today I stopped into the Office (Barnes and Noble, of course). I’m still there now. Sitting at a table next to me are two girls with books piled high around them, along with a few bibles and a computer or two. They are planning a program to reach at risk girls in the West Palm Beach area in the ages of 12 – 18. They want to show these girls that they are priceless, empowered, created for a purpose. And the program they are working on now is just one of many they are creating based out of their organization The Red Shoe. Go check it out on the internet. Two girls who connected — over coffee after church, no less…my type of girls!!! — created an organization to change the world they live in.

All over the country people are doing the same thing. It was the outstanding lesson from Catalyst. Ordinary people with very little time, money or special skills are using what they have to quietly change their world. And they are doing it now.

I don’t want to be left behind. It’s time to stop planning for “someday” and start living today.

Tagged as: Catalyst, Living Life Now, Red Shoe Inc