It is impossible to lead the life you love working for someone else.
I wouldn’t feel safe if I worked free-lance or on my own. To lead the life I love, I need a secure job.
To me, the most important thing about leading the life I love is having the freedom to go to sleep when I want to, and wake up when I’m ready.
I am willing to comply with the rules and restrictions of my job, including getting to work on time every day, in exchange for a steady income. Following the rules is relaxing for me.
I am not living the life I love if I have to do what someone else wants me to do, when they want me to do so, and in the way they want me to do it, whether I agree or not.
When I leave work I am done with it and don’t have to think about it until the next day or the next week.
The life I love is one of simplicity. I feel tied down by possessions. Walking barefoot in the grass is more important to living the life I love than having the money to buy lots of new shoes.
I am willing to work hard at my job because it allows me to buy expensive clothes, new technology, a big house/great apartment and a fancy car. I am more interested in what I can do with the money I earn than I am in how I earn it.
The life I love is one that’s focused on adventure, excitement, challenge, and risk. I am happiest when I am testing my own limits.
I want repetition, order, and ease. The life I love is dependable and predictable.
We are unique individuals, seeking fulfillment in unique ways.
There are no right answers to living the life you love. There are no wrong answers to living the life you love.
I was raised to be a member of the post-industrial consumer class. I worked my way through college and chose to hold down three part-time jobs so I would have the money to buy new shoes and have my hair styled every other week. How I looked was more important to me than how I acted. And I needed money to look the way I was supposed to look.
When did this change? Was it the day I decided not to buy a new bra? Was it the day I ordered my first pair of Bean’s boots? Was it one to many nicks in my shin, bathwater turning pink from my blood? One too many days being too aware of the burning, itching in my armpits?
When and where and how did I finally come to learn that living the life I love has to start with loving myself as I am. Exactly as I am. Unbound. Feet on the ground. Hairy where Creator made me hairy. Loving even the hardships of my life, because I choose to love my life, because I live the life I love.
Loving myself as I am saves ever so much money. That is, I don’t have to use my time and energy earning money to buy expensive clothes soon out of style, expensive plastic surgery and foundation garments to keep looking good, and endless supplies of soon used up razors, makeup, perfumes, lotions, and lipstick. One of my apprentices went home and quite her very-well-paid job as a legal secretary and claimed she saved more than ten thousand dollars that year because she no longer had to buy nylons, manicures, lunch in restaurants, a parking spot for her (too-big-but-required) car, dry-cleaning her clothes, and memberships in clubs she needed to belong to.
Leading the life I love is based on what I feel and what I need. I need to be of service to others. I feel happiest when I am sharing my abundance with others. I am most fulfilled when my knowledge helps others in their quest for wholeness. I offer simplicity in a time of complexity and self-reliance in a world where most humans are separated from the creation of the things they need to live: food, clothing, shelter.
The path that led me to the life I love was meandering. Feminism. Lesbianism. There were dead ends and detours. Vegetarianism. Separatism. I got lost a time or two. A quiet, simple divorce from my daughter’s father. A nasty, extended divorce from my lesbian partners/lovers seven years later.
My heart, my gut, and my womb have guided me . . . when I was willing to listen. My teachers have told me the truth, especially when I did not want to see it. I have been blessed with simple needs, so my world is filled with abundance. I go to sleep laughing. I wake up, when I want to, filled with joy. Leading the life I love is a gift of bliss to myself and to the whole world.
