A few years ago I was meeting one of my friends at a restaurant in Florida, and across the table, in the center aisle, a little girl was performing and speaking as if she had an audience of hundreds. I said hello to her and asked where she was from. She said, “I am from South Carolina,” and I said, “So am I.” Then she started performing, doing a somersault right in the middle of the restaurant, and she declared, “I am seven”—as if to say, I am ready to live life fully. I am so excited about my life. I am so excited about living—yipppeee!

Being excited about life is being thankful you were given life, while being excited about living is how you allow yourself to experience the moments of your life.

I was so touched by this young girl’s presence and was reminded of myself at an early age and the value of remaining as free as she appeared to be. She was doing her best to be as close to her divine nature as possible. She triggered within me how I was losing this ability and had died a little. Of course, her grandfather was in the background telling me how much trouble she was and that he wished she would sit down and behave. She was a difficult child, he said, because she wanted to do things her way. Imagine! I have wondered about her many times, how long it was before she began to die to who she truly was.

One day, the story is told, when Buddha was gathered with many of his followers, they kept asking him, “How did you do it? What did you do? How did it happen that you could be enlightened?” They were all ready to hear the amazing news. And Buddha simply said, “I am awake. I am awake.”
We must wake up. We must be born to who we truly are. It’s time to move from being disconnected and drained to feeling impassioned and energized about our lives.
If you aren’t excited about your life, don’t expect anyone else to be.
It’s time to wake up!