tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35305315.post-1159642275009368352006-09-30T13:43:00.000-05:002006-10-08T08:22:52.066-05:00<span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#000066;">Life Half-Lived --</span> </strong><br /></span></span><br />Hitting 50 years of age does funny stuff to a person. It caused me to reflect on who I am and I began to discover that at the midpoint of my life that I was only half-living. One of the big realizations is that I have lived a lot of my life, too much of my life, by the expectations of others.<br /><br />I realized this while I was on a whitewater rafting trip last summer. I had a thrilling time and I wondered why I didn't do stuff like this anymore. I used to do stuff like this up into my twenties -- but then I finished graduate school, started my career as a clergy person and somewhere, I started to "pick up tapes" of what I should be like, how I should act. Well I guess I don't want to play those tapes anymore. I want to live life fully and authentically, rather than by expectations of others, or expectations I have placed upon myself in my trying to "fit in" with others.<br /><br />I realize that my life has been half-lived in living within such expectations -- others or my own, and its time to live fully into the life that God has created and called me into. So here at 50 I am embarking on a journey to discover what life for me is to be all about.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35305315-115964227500936835?l=exploringlife-withgod.blogspot.com'/></div>Roland G. Kuhlrgkuhl@imissional.org1