livin' raw...

by Brian Clement

I read this in the comic strip Rose is Rose and thought to myself, what a wonderful expression. This is how we should all live our lives — with buoyant zeal. The dictionary says buoyant means "to lift the spirits of" and zeal is "enthusiastic and intensive interest." What a wonderful combination! It makes you feel happy just to say and to think of it. What a way to live life using the ability to lift our own and other people's spirits with an enthusiastic and intensive interest in all things.

If we can take a real interest in others' thoughts, plans, and ideas, we enrich our own lives. Just by really listening when others need an ear to help and a shoulder to cry on. To extend a helping hand to lift another from negative thoughts and depression, we fill our own lives because by lifting their spirits we cannot help but lift ours along with theirs. With this effort to help we gain new knowledge and experiences that will help guide us in our future relations with all people.

To be happy is to be welcomed everywhere, not with a false grin and platitudes on our lips, but with a genuine happy heart and a gladness to be wherever we may be, with an openness to new people, new ideas, new thoughts and to welcome this newness with open arms. This is to lead a life with a generosity of spirit which in turn leads ourselves to a better and more fruitful existence.

To attack life in all ways with zeal — real zeal — not an all-consuming negative passion but an open love for life and all things in it should be the goal of all humanity. It takes zeal to make a difference not necessarily in the whole world, but just in your neighborhood, to clean up an area, to help in a senior citizen's home, to aid at a childcare center, to mentor at a school, these all help you live your life so that it not only benefits others but gives you a zest to live life to the fullest.

When we are buoyant we bring others up to our level, not let them drag us down to their depths. To be buoyant is to float to the top and this is where our lives should be led, filled with elation and enthusiasm. To be happy to wake up in the morning knowing we have something important to do that will not just fill our day but make our day profitable and significant — a day like no other.

To live with buoyant zeal is to make every day count. We are all living with a limited lifespan and no one is exempt from this fact. We do not want to look back and see how many days we have wasted on selfish ends, but to look back with a small amount of satisfaction and see how the little things we did each day grew to be a life full of small victories that has led to a great garden of joys that have blossomed more each day. One short day living with buoyant zeal can lead to a lifetime of happy days filled with positive emotions. Be well.