Do you ever fear life is just passing you by?

I think everybody's covered what I would add here, Diana.  You've had an interesting life - you've lived in many places and along the way developed a sweet, compassionate and fun-loving spirit.  As long as you're making the right choices along the way, you're where you need to be.  I think everybody has their moments of feeling unfulfilled or stagnant, but we're not, really.

Yes, it's hard to not compare yourself to others when taking stock of your life, but you never know what little crosses others are dragging around or how broken the heart is behind the smile.

In 21st Century western culture, it's always about our "accomplishments," isn't it?  Your accomplishment is that you bring a smile to us every day, and I'm sure you do in your office too, and in all other areas of your life.  Same with you, Krissy.  You're an awesome mom, and you have your priorities in order.  The standards of "success" nowadays can be pretty weird.  I think you're both success stories!  And we're human beings, not human doings.  Success isn't about what we do, but who we are and how it affects our fellow beings.  You're both very precious!

Thank you for that, Ruth. I love the way you said "As long as you're making the right choices along the way, you're where you need to be". It calls to mind something that C.S. Lewis said. He believed that our souls are formed by every decision we make. Every decision is for heaven or hell and our souls conform to those decisions.

If that is true (I think it must be. If human beings have free will and that free will affects our eternal life, and if the only thing that is eternal about us is our soul, then our free will decisions here must affect the growth of our souls.), then what you say is also correct, if we are making the right choices along the way, we are where we need to be.

It is true in today's world we are taught that our value is equal to what we "do" or have accomplished in terms of education and career. The first thing our of our mouth when we meet someone for the first time is "What do you do?". Then we proceed, consciously or unconsciously, to judge that person by their answer. It's such an ingrained response that I don't think we even realize we're doing it most of the time.

I have come to realize that what I am really unhappy with is not the externals of my life but the way I feel about them. Maybe it's time to stop and ask, what can I do today, no matter how small, that will give me that sense of inner fulfillment? Maybe it's just taking a drive further north and seeing the autumn leaves that have begun to change. Maybe it's not even that ambitious, maybe it's just breaking my regular routine and taking a different route on my evening bike ride.

Perfectly said Diana! I think maybe you and I are where we need to be and need to just be in the moment like Rita said.

Great bunch of friends we have here on POE, huh?

Who knows, Diana?  Perhaps those friends of yours who are married with children envy the freedom that you enjoy not being similarly blessed (or encumbered, depending on one's perspective at any given moment)?  The grass appears greener on the other side of that fence, but by golly, I've got quite a garden over here myself!

I don't fear its passing me by, I try to enjoy it as much as possible, but i do fear how quickly it goes by!! especially today, its pretty windy out and time is blowing past way to quickly!

I try to make the most of time, and take everything in that i can .... but part of me thinks maybe we're not designed for that, we have made ourselves fat off the land, by over producing and overeating, and surrounding ourselves with 'unatural' things, we seem to have overused the resources the earth has to offer, and so now we have time to reflect on our futures and pasts, if survival was still our main concern we would have no time to reflect like this, and feeding ourselves/families etc and staying alive would be our only concerns, places of famine etc.. are only concerned with survival. So it seems it is only due to our greed that we are allowed  the 'luxury' of concentrating so much energy on thinking about time and our own mortality?

phew don't know where that come from!!

Those are words for thought, Jason. I suppose, in the light you paint, we should be grateful that we have the time to reflect.

If there is a God, and I believe that there is, and if he has a purpose for us then the question becomes, what is that purpose? Why create human kind and put them on this awesome planet only to struggle, grow old, and die?

I don't pretend to know the mind of God, but the only way it makes sense to me is to presume that we are, as Ruth has said, right where we are meant to be in the space/time continuum.

This planet was created as an evolutionary world and we are thus evolutionary creatures. The material body dies but we have a direct link to God via our souls and those souls go on forever. Where? I suppose the ultimate purpose is to evolve cosmically and spiritually until we finally reach that place where God himself resides. To meet him, if you will, face to face.

If it is true, as C.S. Lewis said, that we are souls with bodies and not bodies with souls, then perhaps the time we have to "reflect" upon our mortality is intended to drive the soul to look upward and toward God. To learn how to enjoy the time we have here but to be aware that this is not all God intended for us. Rather, we have a great ascension career ahead of us after this life is over.