Living Life!
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- December 3, 2025
In our modern, reductionist, materialistic world, we see the process of dying as being an endpoint, moving from existence into non-existence. This is not the view of our ancestors or primitive societies, who see a continuity of life in every form.
Every day, millions of cells in our gut, in our skin, organs and bones die to be replaced by new ones built on the memory or information of their ancestors, a truly remarkable recycling process based on an informed system. This same process extends to all living creatures, plants and animals, including humans. The vital information passed from one to the other is held in the memory that is part of universal consciousness; whether it concerns a simple plant or the most complex animal, we humans.
The problem with our materialistic concept of the world is an intense desire for certainty and the known. However, in reality, we can never know, because we live in a world of the unknown. What will happen in the next decade, year, day, hour, or second? We do not know.
The very process of living is built on dealing with, embracing, and meeting the unknown throughout our lives. The common factor among all living things is responsibility, or, more precisely, the innate ability to respond optimally to whatever the environment demands.
I am constantly reminded of a wonderful quotation about life that we are in one of three states at any moment in our lives, which are living, existing or dying.
The more we try to live in the moment, the more we are truly living; the more we live in the past or the future, we are existing; without any active living in the moment, we are dying.
The past is beyond our ability to change; the future is totally unknown, but the present is totally within our power to act and live. Our living may be inspired by our imagination and visions of the kind of future we want for ourselves, our family, our community and mankind, regardless of the past or the future.
We need to learn from the young child, who, until the age of seven or younger, usually lives primarily in the moment. Yes, toddlers make excellent sages, I believe it was Jesus who spoke of this, concerning entering the kingdom of heaven as a child?
So let’s all start living in the now. It takes practice, but the end result is worth the effort to be alive and living! Where are you starting from?
Living/Existing/Dying is it 80/10/10? Or 10/70/20? You can improve on whatever your score is!
Michael Lingard (50/30/20!) – BSc (Econ). DO
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Michael Lingard, a regular contributor to Wellbeing Magazine for the past 18 years. A passionate promoter of real health care and would like to see a paradigm shift in modern medicine; from a disease & pathology based system to a health and ethology based system.
