When does life really begin?

Your invitation has arrived. An invitation that is extended to you because you meet the requirements.
Not a dress code, or a friendship with the right people. Not a fulfilment of certain means – money in the bank or assets on ­­­paper. But the invitation has come, and the doors have opened, because you’re already here.

Because you are ready.

God knows you’ve struggled. You went to school. You learned the subjects, read the books, and took the exams. You got jobs and lost jobs. You found friends and lost friends. You loved, had your heart broken, but somehow found the courage to love again.

You made the mistakes, embarrassed yourself, paid a penance and did better the next time round. You found opportunity, you found difficulty, you found things that worked for you, and plenty of things that didn’t. You shouted in rage, cried in sadness, you grieved for what you lost, and you were thankful for what you gained.

It hurt and it was joyful. It was humbling and empowering. It was success and it was failure. It was unfair and it was a blessing. And your hands grew sore and calloused from the act of pulling yourself along the road from childhood to adulthood, but now you understand that all these years you have led you here. That all these trials, these cuts and bruises, wins and losses, were preparing you for what was to come. And who you were to become. Every day is a lesson. And you’ve learned that this is life.

Now, as you accept your invitation to the club, and step forward with confidence and assuredness into the main event of your life, you realise that with every breath you take, you enjoy the sweet fragrance of all these experiences – good and bad, hard and easy, painful and joyful.

Because finally, you understand that everything that went before – every act you took and everything that was acted upon you, was just the prelude. You didn’t come this far, to only come this far. Because now you know who you are. And it feels good, and you want more. You want better. You want richer. You want more colourful. More texture. More flavour. More music. More energy. More direction. More reward. More style. More identity. More sunlight. You want more.

All that hard work that went in to creating yourself, was setting the scene, and now you’re ready to start the show. Those decades of hard-learned lessons were writing the script for a life worth living. A life of meaning, of reward, of satisfaction, and purpose. You know who you have become and what it took to get here. And today, and tomorrow, and every day onwards, you are becoming more.

It has taken this many years of life happening to you, to understand that life happens by you. With your own hand you create the circumstances of who you are, where you are, and how you are. You are finally ready to get to work and start living. The curtain opens. The show begins. And as you step into the spotlight, you’re just getting started. This is not the final act. This is Act 1.

And you have one more thing to do: Just be.

Act1. Just be.