What Is the License to Happiness

While driving home late last night I noticed a fellow driver's personalized license plate that read LVB4UDIE. Interestingly, my friend interpreted it as "love" before you die. I thought the owner intended it as "live" before you die. In the final analysis, however, it probably doesn't matter since I suggest to you today that doing one is the only way to do the other. In other words, the only way to truly live, and elevate the soul beyond the vibrations of it's mortal confines, is to engage in activities that feed it and help it grow--namely love. So make it your mission to find someone to love. It might be a child, a parent, a partner. Love, and the ability to love that often follows forgiveness can be the thing that makes our present moment experiences worth all the pain and suffering we may have ever experienced. (And, as Marianne Williamson said in her book Return To Love, "We are not held back by the love we didn't receive in the past, but by the love we're not extending in the present.")

LVB4UDIE

Let's start off with the answer
so at least we'll both be clear
There's got to be a purpose, friend
a reason we're all here

It's more than just survival
that's too basic, all agreed?
For once you've got that covered
there's a soul still left to feed

So what shall be your mission
so you'll say you've truly lived?
How best to capture grains of time
that pass right through life's sieve?

To me the answer's easy
for just few things really matter
And given choice of shape or soul
I'd have to choose the latter

See, cash alone won't cut it
but you'd best not do without
And power can move mountains
but it's not what life's about

And freedom's good for getting
but no fun if it's just you
You'll need others to share
So serving others ranks high too

But one thing reigns supreme
and trumps all others on this quest
The act of giving love
is what shall make our life its best

For fleeting are the trappings
and with shells shall pass away
But spirit grows eternal
be the love we share today

For by our true and present love
our pasts we nullify
The only way to live, therefore
is love before you die