Welcome to the inspirational living podcast.

Today's podcast has been edited and adapted from the book entitled The Art of Being Alive by Ella

Wheeler Wilcox published in 1914.

Stop wondering why you were born into this world. Stop looking for faults and flaws.

Rise up today with joy and say, I am going to be alive.

In every thousand people who are living on this earth, not more than one is alive.

To be really alive means more than to be a moving, breathing, eating, drinking,

and talking human being. Those who are actually alive find the days too short to pursue

all the wonderful explorations which life offers them. They find life itself a continual adventure, an unfolding panorama,

with opportunities for pleasure and achievement at every turn. Those who are alive find themselves

an object of interesting study, however dissatisfied they may be, for they know that they

are part of eternity, and that in themselves

lie all the powers and possibilities latent in the universe.

Those who are fully alive enjoy the earth and all its pleasures.

They love the slap of the wind upon their cheek, the dash of the waves upon their

breast, the motion of their

limbs in a swift walk, the ecstasy of rhythm in the dance, the vibrant chill of the morning.

They love labor and the fatigue which follows.

In their harmoniously developed body there is not one lazy or unused muscle.

But being alive does not stop there.

Those who practice the art of being alive to its fullest extent have an alert, receptive brain and an awakened spirit.

Without these you would simply be a splendid animal.

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