What does Elizabeth Gilbert's announcement have to do with you? Actually, maybe more than you think.

Elizabeth Gilbert did what Elizabeth Gilbert does best—she transparently stepped into the limelight yet again and stood authentically in her truth. She’s in love with her best friend and her best friend, Rayya, is in love with her.

I don’t know Elizabeth Gilbert and so I don’t know her back story. What I know is what she shared with the world yesterday. Rayya has cancer—a serious, most likely incurable kind—and it was this realization that she was going to lose Rayya that pushed Elizabeth into realizing that she loved Rayya as more than a friend, more than bestie. Rayya was her “person” as she put it and living any other way than with Rayya at her side as her beloved partner was unthinkable.

Death has a way of stepping in and flooding the room with light and clarity. It has a way of making us step up. It has a way of shocking us into life just as it threatens to take that very life.

But what if we didn’t wait until death came knocking on the door? What if we jumpstarted ourselves without the deadline of cancer or serious illness and imminent death?

What if we lived this moment like it was our last? And I don’t mean to be cliched here though I thoroughly realize that I am being. Are you seizing the moment? Are you fully alive? And guess what? I can’t be that and you can’t be that unless we’re willing to be unabashedly, inexcusably ourselves. There’s no way around it. There’s no short cut.

Joie de vivre requires 100% aliveness which requires authenticity.

I hope you won’t wait until death is knocking at your door to fully come to life. I hope you won’t wait for an invitation from the Grim Reaper to discover your true self. I hope you won’t find yourself in the shoes that it seems Elizabeth Gilbert is now standing in—realizing a great love when most likely it’s about to die.

Maybe now’s the time for you.

With showers of light and love,
Rhegina

Are you ready for more in your life–a lot more? Sign up for my free newsletter now on the right of this page (toward the top) and I’ll send you tips, inspiration, and a few giggles along the way to help you live a happier, more vibrant life.