Action Verb

Living is an action verb. Pretty much anything that ends in “ing” is an action verb. We are human beings. We are humans who are actualizing the verb “to be”. We are being. Whether or not we are living is up for debate. If we are being, then we are most likely surviving, but surviving is not living. Surviving is a requirement for living, but it is not sufficient. Walking, talking, seeing, smelling, tasting, touching, are all things that enhance living, but none of them are necessarily essential for living. Living as many different definitions, but not as many as there are humans on the earth, which is a sad thing.

A lot of people go through life living without defining what that is for them. They get up, go to work, come home, mow the lawn on Saturdays, do their laundry on Sundays and their shopping on Wednesdays because that’s when the coupons are doubled at the local store. Is that sufficient for them for living? Many people don’t bother looking at it or defining it until they hit 40 or so and we get the almost cliché “mid life crisis”. There is no crisis. You just realized that you hadn’t bothered defining “living” and thus aren’t doing it by your alleged definition. Most “mid life crisis” people borrow their definition of “living” from the media or their early 20s. Yet another brain dead short cut. More on that later.

Loving is another great action verb. “I love him” or “I love her”. What does that mean? For most people, it means that you feel the emotion of love for that person, and that’s it. Love is a verb, and loving is an action verb. “I am loving him” is inaccurate for a lot of relationships, which is why they fail. If you can accurately say, “I am loving my partner” in addition to “I love my partner”, then you’re doing great. More on that later.

Live is meant to be lived using action verbs. Swimming, thinking, contemplating, loving, shopping, reading, meditating, playing, dancing – all these things are actions that can fill your life with living. Pick a few of them, or all of them, and a whole lot more, and fill up your Future.