Live Your Life With Arms Wide Open

"Live you life with arms wide open"..... These lyrics to the song "Unwritten", by Natasha Bedingfeild, are my current favorite. Here are all of the lyrics.....




I have been blessed.

Born to an unwed mother in the 60's...abandoned by my father....in fact, never to lay eyes on him....I'm currently 47 years old.

My mother, in her teens, and a young hispanic woman, somehow inherited a bit of class....enough class to keep me and my older sister clean, well dressed, and educated. (I like to think I also inherited a bit of that same "class").

At around the time I was 4 years old I started to become "chubby".... I have one memory of being around the age of 10, parking myself next to a bowl of potato chips at a party.....sneaking chips at every opportunity.

I realized early on that I was not like my "skinny" friends, or my skinny sisters. In fact I realized I was the only fat person in my entire family. In my entire elementary school. Maybe in the entire world.

In my elementary years I could not do alot of the physical things my friends could do....like cartwheels...what kind of kid can't do a simple cartwheel? A chubby kid, that's who.

But I always knew that I was in the wrong place....I was not this fat person.

So, I caught the "perfectionism" disease. Throughout my life I've tried to prove that I was "better than"...."smarter than"....."as good as"

I was driving to work this morning and this song came on the radio.....I had just heard this song yesterday on my way to yoga class......I sang along, with passion for the words, and then I started to think about what these words meant to me, in my life today....."live you life with arms wide open" were the lyrics that stayed with me.

I don't think that anything happens by chance.

What do these lyrics mean to you?

"Unwritten"

I am unwritten, can't read my mind, I'm undefined (you decide who you are)
I'm just beginning, the pen's in my hand, ending unplanned (...plan it now, it's up to you how the story ends...)

Staring at the blank page before you (lucky you...you can decide who and what you want to be....it doesn't matter what you've done, or not done....start again, start over, erase your mistakes, the past over. The only thing that matters now is your future....and the future is now)
Open up the dirty window (the window to your future is only cloudy until you claim clarity...YOU claim clarity!)
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find
Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it (It's here...NOW.....stop reaching...it's here now)
Release your inhibitions (dont worry about what anybody else has to say...screw everybody else)
Feel the rain on your skin (feel life!)
No one else can feel it for you (again, screw everybody else!)
Only you can let it in (YOU are in control...you are not a victim)
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips (no one else has walked in your shoes)
Drench yourself in words unspoken ("drench" yourself...lose yourself in the possibilities)
Live your life with arms wide open (surrender)
Today is where your book begins (everyday is a new beginning. Reinvent yourself )
The rest is still unwritten (this is your life....never apologize for being who you truely are)

I break tradition, sometimes my tries, are outside the lines
We've been conditioned to not make mistakes, but I can't live that way (everybody makes mistakes...embrace the mistakes as long as you can find value in the lessons learned)

.....

Open up the dirty window (the dirt is all of the negative stuff we hold on to...)
.....
Release your inhibitions (let go)

Feel the rain on your skin (feel the life, feel your physical body asking for health and vitality)

Live your life with arms wide open (accept your greatness)

Today is where your book begins (today is the first day of the rest of your life!)

The rest is still unwritten (.....but it's becoming clearer....you are worth it, you deserve it...we all do)