Having things in your life
like ideas,
or a stick that needs whittling,
or a cobbler that needs baking,
or eating...
Anything that siezes you
with a sense of urgency about it
and a vibrancy that throbs with
the rhythm of life,
sending you off on a mission
that must be done NOW,
is a very good thing,
and we need more of it in our day,
every day.
My sister, Susan, took her own life
for the lack of anything better to do.
She made out a living will
with "no tube feeding" in caps
and quit eating and drinking.
She died under hospice care
from a lack of verve, she did.
She also lacked an imagination
that could grab her by the neck
and throw her into life
with the passion of someone seeking
to serve a vision that has to be realized
like, to borrow a Zen image,
"A person with their hair on fire
seeks a swimming pool."
May we all have such an imagination!
May we need such a swimming pool
every day or two!
–0–
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 
“A vibrancy that throbs with the rhythm of life” you captured it precisely here in the word ‘rhythm’, as there is an ebb and flow in life, where we go inward to replenish within our inner being, and then we move outward to act in the world, facing whatever presents to be dealt with, with all we have at that moment. Having a project to engage with, when the mind is flowing outwards, may be crucial to prevent us from feeling lost.
It is so sad to know about your sister, I am very sorry for your loss.
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The movement in and out is vital to our well-being and that of those in our presence. Susan was a good place for others to be but had a co-dependent side that needed to be needed, and she didn’t do the work of establishing her relationship with herself, with her core, as a viable source of life and being in her own right. She could go out, but found there what she needed to find within, and her flow was disrupted, and when the pandemic came along and she was isolated from the buoying company of others, she wasn’t able to sustain her “aliveness” on her own. A victim of COVID with none of the symptoms.
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This is sad. I am personally not very social by nature so pandemic did not affect me as much as it did affect many, but I can understand- when people are very much used to social interaction, it may become a need, a sort of dependence for them and loneliness could hit hard when deprived of regular social routines. I guess everyone should try to develop this relationship with ‘Self’ regardless of their social inclinations. There is a difference between ‘alone’ and ‘lonely’ (Being alone can be joyful while being lonely is associated with a sense of lack). This may be, and should be consciously investigated and understood by each of us.
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Marianne Moore said, “The cure for loneliness is solitude.” That has become my mantra over time.
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