Truly Living

In life, we're given two major tasks: build a strong container, then find what it's meant to hold. The first task, creating our identity and security, consumes us. We focus so much on this that we often forget the second task.

Our society is fixated on the first half of life - survival, success, stability. It's what we've known for centuries, maybe because time was short. Building relationships, security, a platform for our lives - that's the first task.

But there's more: the task within the task. What we're really doing when we're doing what we do. Two people, same job, yet one exudes life energy, the other negativity. It's this energy we respond to, what we desire from each other - that life energy called eros, drawing, creating, connecting.

When we pay attention to this inner task, seeking integrity in our motives, we move to the second half of life. Integrity means purifying our intentions, being honest. It's hard work, often realized after a fall or failure.

In the first half, we invest everything. We think "the old wineskins are good enough," but they can't hold the new wine. We need new wineskins, or we'll lose both wine and vessel. The second half can hold new wine, but the container must stretch or die to be replaced with something better.

Discover the task within the task. Find that life energy within you. Move from surviving to truly living.

May you build a strong container for your life's journey,
and may you have the courage to discover what it's truly meant to hold.

As you navigate the tasks of survival and success,
may you also seek the inner task, finding the life energy within you
that draws, creates, and connects.

In the rush of building, we forge our identity,
A vessel sturdy, secure, our life's foundation laid.

But within these walls, a deeper task awaits,
An unseen current, life's energy, elusive yet profound.

Society whispers of survival, success, stability,
Yet beneath the surface, a yearning for connection, creation.

Two souls, same path, diverging energies,
One radiates life, the other weighed by negativity.

Integrity beckons from the shadows of failure,
A call to purify intentions, to be honest, to be whole.

For in the first half's frantic pace, we grasp at old wineskins,
Believing them enough, until they crack, and we are left wanting.

Embrace the second task, the task within the task,
Let life's energy flow, stretch the container, hold the new wine.