Thinking about this phrase I understand the message of taking advantage of opportunities in life and seizing the day.  As much as possible, I endeavour to living a life which I enjoy and am grateful for.

Yet I cannot help but feel that if I was to truly live my best life I would be doing many different things.  Going to the Himalayas and meditating for a year, volunteering full time for a local charity or leaving everything behind and setting off on a long walk across Europe are all aspirational experiences.

So why do I feel I cannot do these things?

Mainly this is because if I were to do these things, I would not have the money to support my familly and pay the bills for our house.  Financially I could not stop working without risking homelessness within a few months, and there would remain the uncertainty of having a job to come back to.  I feel restricted.  I guess that many people also have this dilemma.

We have been told that we are free but we only have limited freedom and this is only if we comply with the working lifestyle to pay bills for housing, food and indulgences.  I struggle to comprehend how or why there are five days in the working week and only two ‘free days’? I can understand if the work was dependent on ensuring our physical survival but this is rarely the case.

I get that we are privileged to be born at a time without war and there is increased equal rights but shouldn’t we be doing more to create a utopia?  Motivated people doing work for a system they believe in opposed to our current ‘broken’ system (as Brexit exposes).

Overall I am not living my best life but instead living my best possible life because of my circumstances.  Wouldn’t it be great if the world’s circumstances changed so we could all live our best lives? Hopefully this will be the case in the future.

……

I write this later in the day.  This evening I spent some time just with my 9 month old son at home, gave him a bath, bottle and bed.  It was great.  Our best lifes are ahead.