live and let live

After re-watching "The Last Holiday" with my mom this morning (which happens to be one of my old-time favorites), I felt inspired to live each day to the fullest. For those who don't know the movie, the basic story line is that a lower-middle class African American woman (played by Queen Latifah) living in Louisiana and working as a sales clerk is diagnosed with a brain disease and is given three weeks to live. Instead of sulking around, she takes all the money out of her bank account and spends her last weeks at Grand Hotel Pupp, trying everything from sky diving to gambling to spa therapy. She lives her dreams out in those three weeks.

But why do we need to wait? Why is it that in everyone's life, something terrible has to happen for us to realize the true worth of things? Why do we place seemingly valuable things such as our job before our own health and happiness? I don't know the meaning of life. But I know the purpose - to live. To live each day to the fullest, to love freely and to smile often. To enjoy all we are offered and not be afraid to give back more than we receive. To get off our butts and to run outside and sit in the sunshine. To sing when we are happy and to let other people sing too. To turn our anger, sadness and fear into positive things, because our time is constantly running out. To finish our homework and housework, and to spend time with our friends. To take a second to reflect. To smile and laugh every single chance we get. To cherish one another more than anything else. That is life's purpose.