Following Your Arrow

Have you ever gone through days or weeks or even months where you look back and think, "Wow... time flew by and I didn't do anything." Whether you got stuck in a rut or you unintentionally put your life into cruise control, I think we can all admit that we've gone through these periods where we find ourselves 'just surviving'. We get up every morning and perform the same activities over and over again like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. Wasted time. When I lost my brother to suicide I found myself doing just that for months on end. It wasn't until my father sat me down and said, "We can't just keep surviving--we have to start living", that I realized how universal that statement is. How many people out there are content with 'just surviving'? Even worse, how many people out there don't even realize they're in cruise control until it's too late?

The truth is, life isn't always a bunch of unicorns riding rainbows and pooping butterflies--surprised? Of course not, everyone knows that. But despite all of the hardships and struggles that come our way and try and knock us down, we must do everything in our power to pursue what makes us happy. Here's my point and the takeaway message from this: many years down the line when our time is coming to an end, if we haven't found complete happiness and joy in our lives, at least we can say that we did everything we could to try and find it. We didn't just give up when life threw us tragedy. And when we felt like giving up, we looked to someone near us to lean on and keep us on the right path. Simply put: We followed our arrow.