28,835. According to performance artist Ze Frank, that is approximately how many jelly beans make up the days of our lives. After watching his YouTube video highlighting how our various mundane activities such as eating, bathing, and sleeping "consume" said beans, a person should be at least somewhat motivated to reflect on just how he or she should spend the rest of his beans, or rather days, before they run out.
Perhaps you don't need jelly beans, or me, to tell you that. It's human nature to understand we have a finite amount of time on this earth, although I would argue we as humans also desire to live forever, a desire for eternity. We know logically we can't live here forever. We know perhaps we don't want to live too long, when life is nothing but poor health and pain; however, we usually struggle to find the path that is going to lead to the longest life possible, full of joy and laughter and learning and love. So we do those things we can to live both a long life, as well as a life that is...blessed.
We explain this to the young all day long. Do right. Play by the rules. Drive the speed limit. Nevertheless, the young, teenagers in particular, can't seem to grasp that they are not invincible, not going to live forever. The secret we don't let them in on is that we grown adults feel pretty invincible too, that the future to us seems pretty long with endless possibilities, as long as we play by the rules. Eat right, exercise, look left, then right, then left again (or is it right then left?) and all will go well. Yes, there will be others who try to get us off the right path, but persevere! Keep to the straight and narrow path! This all equals a long and relatively peaceful life.
As my grandmother used to say, "You're full of prunes if you believe that." Life takes sharp turns very often, life spins out of control at times, life is just plain UNFAIR. Here's a good example: my life. Yes, it has veered off in some strange directions at times, but one area that totally blindsided me was my health. I thought if I ate a healthy diet, exercised a brisk 5-6 days a week, got plenty of sleep, kept up on the latest health news, and adjusted my "regimen" as necessary, all would go well. Then I got sick. Literally (that's the word du jour you know) gut-wrenching sick. Long story short, it took 3 years to get something VAGUELY resembling a diagnosis and countless jelly beans worth of Internet time to find out how to start my healing journey.
So what do jelly beans and my health have to do with a Camino blog? The fact that taking care of my body did not turn out to equal perfect health is one of the big reasons why I am doing a 500 mile walk across Spain before I run out of beans. Today I have a somewhat restricted diet, but not nearly as much as earlier in my health odyssey. I now have my stamina back, my weight up to a healthy range, and most importantly, I have a mentality that screams, "GET OUT THERE AND LIVE!" I won't beat that horse any longer today. I will suggest before ending that each of us ponder the number of our days that remain. Make each one count. You may not go on a hike, but get out of your comfort zone. Embrace the fact that this life on earth is finite. We need to make the days matter for more than the mundane. We need to ensure that we can say to ourselves and to those who come into our lives, "Buen Camino!"
Perhaps you don't need jelly beans, or me, to tell you that. It's human nature to understand we have a finite amount of time on this earth, although I would argue we as humans also desire to live forever, a desire for eternity. We know logically we can't live here forever. We know perhaps we don't want to live too long, when life is nothing but poor health and pain; however, we usually struggle to find the path that is going to lead to the longest life possible, full of joy and laughter and learning and love. So we do those things we can to live both a long life, as well as a life that is...blessed.
We explain this to the young all day long. Do right. Play by the rules. Drive the speed limit. Nevertheless, the young, teenagers in particular, can't seem to grasp that they are not invincible, not going to live forever. The secret we don't let them in on is that we grown adults feel pretty invincible too, that the future to us seems pretty long with endless possibilities, as long as we play by the rules. Eat right, exercise, look left, then right, then left again (or is it right then left?) and all will go well. Yes, there will be others who try to get us off the right path, but persevere! Keep to the straight and narrow path! This all equals a long and relatively peaceful life.
As my grandmother used to say, "You're full of prunes if you believe that." Life takes sharp turns very often, life spins out of control at times, life is just plain UNFAIR. Here's a good example: my life. Yes, it has veered off in some strange directions at times, but one area that totally blindsided me was my health. I thought if I ate a healthy diet, exercised a brisk 5-6 days a week, got plenty of sleep, kept up on the latest health news, and adjusted my "regimen" as necessary, all would go well. Then I got sick. Literally (that's the word du jour you know) gut-wrenching sick. Long story short, it took 3 years to get something VAGUELY resembling a diagnosis and countless jelly beans worth of Internet time to find out how to start my healing journey.
So what do jelly beans and my health have to do with a Camino blog? The fact that taking care of my body did not turn out to equal perfect health is one of the big reasons why I am doing a 500 mile walk across Spain before I run out of beans. Today I have a somewhat restricted diet, but not nearly as much as earlier in my health odyssey. I now have my stamina back, my weight up to a healthy range, and most importantly, I have a mentality that screams, "GET OUT THERE AND LIVE!" I won't beat that horse any longer today. I will suggest before ending that each of us ponder the number of our days that remain. Make each one count. You may not go on a hike, but get out of your comfort zone. Embrace the fact that this life on earth is finite. We need to make the days matter for more than the mundane. We need to ensure that we can say to ourselves and to those who come into our lives, "Buen Camino!"