LEAVE: “a period during which the usual routine of school or work is suspended” or “the approval by someone in authority for the doing of something”
LIVE: “having life”
This idea of ownership, of granting yourself permission to be the authority of your own life–is one of the hardest things to learn. From the Greatest Generation to Gen-X, we’ve been guided on how to live our lives through a series of life stage accomplishments and milestones. Most of the time that has involved a linear path from point A to point B to point C all the way on the journey toward death. (Morbid, right?)
Recently, those straight lines have shifted. They have become circuitous, even squiggly in nature. The rules, if they even existed have changed and the map to living a full life has expanded beyond your imagination. The freedom of choice can be exciting, scary, nerve-wracking and exhilarating…it allows us to do what we’re put on this earth to do, live.
And that’s what it is all about: learning how to live a more enriched and fulfilling life, and in some cases that may involve learning to leave to live. I promise you that when you leave to live you take charge of your own existence and your destiny, and that’s definitely a goal to work towards.
Definitions for LEAVE and LIVE provided by Merriam-Webster.