"The function of a [person] is to live, not exist." -Jack London

   If anyone knew this truth it was Jack London, author of Call of the Wild as well as fifty other books. London grew up poor and, as a teenager, spent a hellish month in a penitentiary, an experience that scared his life. He traveled the world after his biggest book sold millions and he continued to live his life to the fullest. 

   "The art of existence," a phrase coined by a friend, is my favorite subject. It challenges us to see ourselves as more than a series of vacation photographs punctuating an otherwise gray existence.

   What kind of life are you leading? Another friend who is a dentist and heads up the marvelous Interfaith Dental Clinic faced a career crisis recently. Nearing burnout after twenty years of heroic and healing work she came down with the flu. 

   "All I could do was lie there," she told me recently. "All these thoughts came to me that didn't appear when I was so busy." Not until she became sick did Rhonda realize she needed to live in a new way.  

   She began to re-imagine her life and her leadership. When she recovered, she returned to her work with a whole new vision, one that is bound to bring more healing to thousands of people who live within the influence of her clinic.

   Why waste your one and only life in mere existence? You have the luxury of taking some moments right now to reflect on your life's direction. You don't have to wait until you are down with an illness to discover what will breathe new life into your world – and open the door to Love's boundless energy.

-Erie Chapman