Living in the moment as a survival strategy

  Many or most people I knew growing up had plans for their lives and they were able to follow through on these plans. I suppose the plan I was most able to accomplish was deciding to become enlightened in this life to help myself and everyone I met.

I had seen so many people die scared and alone in my church (mostly because they didn't believe in Doctors) in the 1950s. And so this will really wake someone up witnessing all this.

However, it wasn't until my early 20s that I had to face the fact that my plans in life were not going to work out the way I expected.

And beyond that if they had I likely would have been very unhappy with those plans working out (I have realized this since then).

Since I don't do well with disappointment I found that for me to survive in this world I had to drastically change my strategy so that I could stay alive and eventually be happy with my life.

My strategy became being more spontaneous and opportunistic in every moment.

This is actually the strategy of most animals who survive too, to be very present and aware of your surroundings and your capabilities in every moment.

So, this strategy worked great for me and people who had planned everything in their lives would say to me: "Your life is such and adventure, Fred! How do you manage all this?"

I looked at their lives and found their lives so boring I likely wouldn't have wanted to even be alive if I was them while my life was always amazingly interesting.

However, there is a Chinese Curse which goes: "May you live in Interesting times!"

But, then when this was thought of and used INTERESTING meant upheaval and wars. So, in those days that's what was interesting at that point in human history.

But, for me, being more of a family man while also being an adventurer a lot in life worked for me, especially after my son was born when I was 26 years old. By the time I was 30 I was actually happy and glad that I had stayed alive through my early 20s and my strategy worked.

Also, I had always wanted to own my own businesses too which is also an adventure where you have to wear many hats to succeed.

So, my life just became more and more of an adventure through the years.

Would I say my life was easy? NO!

Often it was very difficult on many different levels.

However, I'm 77 and all my children are still in my life and I have been happily married for 30 years to the same woman and we have lived together now 31 years!

So, my spontaneous strategy which is very opportunistic has always worked for me and made my life an ongoing adventure.

However, you have to be someone who can deal with a lot of change too in your life and I'm okay with this as long as I have my family and friends. But, not everyone is like me in this.

So, if you can handle a lot of adventure and you actually like having adventures then maybe living in the moment in a more spontaneous way can work for you too.

By God's Grace