Authenticity

I remember it was shortly after our son was born that Kim and I were driving the winding Old Pali Road.  I think we may have been trying to get our son down for a nap.  The tree canopy overhung the road and just little spots of sunlight broke through onto the asphalt.  The big questions of life floated around us as we drove and wondered how we would raise this new life in the back seat of the van. How would we raise ourselves?  Just as we were coming around Morgan's Corner, Kim had an epiphany.  It came to her in crystal clear tones.  She told me a pretty simple formula.  She said, "If we live authentically, we will have everything we desire."  What is authentic?  For us, perhaps, it is this move that we are making to opt out of the normal routines of society.  It saddens me to see so many people I know posting on their facebook pages the the joyful glee of the upcoming weekend, because it indicates to me that we live in a society where people feel they need to trudge through 5 days of the week for a two day reprieve.  Why do people put up with it? 

Kim and I had a dear, dear friend of ours die a couple of years back.  She had just retired from 27 years of teaching and had so many grand plans of what to do with her time.  Within the first year of her retirement she was diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer and within months her soul had transitioned and taken that walk over the rainbow.  A few years before that another  dear friend of ours, a 30 year old woman died of  breast cancer.  What are we doing with our time and space between birth and death?  Are we just trudging through to have a few laughs on the weekend?  Or are we really living?  If we live authentically, we will have everything we desire.  My soul wants to stretch out and feel the freedom of life.