What’s a moment in your life that made you feel truly alive?

Life at the Edge

It’s almost three in the morning here in Las Vegas, and I’m still working on tonight’s WordPress Daily Prompt. It came up around midnight with what looked like a simple question:

What’s a moment in your life that made you feel truly alive?

My Harley-Davidson is sitting right here beside me in the garage.

Us bikers have a saying: Live to ride. Ride to live.

There’s my answer.

Riding makes us feel alive.

And we bikers aren’t alone. Whitewater rafters chase it through the rapids. Climbers chase it up mountains. Hikers chase it into the wilderness.

Different adventures. Same thrill.

We’re all chasing that feeling.

We want to feel truly alive.

Maybe that’s why we’re drawn to the edge. There’s something about danger when we choose it—the pounding heart, the sharpened senses, the sudden awareness of every breath—that reminds us just how alive we are.

Maybe that’s why we love action movies too. Give us the storm, the fire, the flood. Give us impossible odds and one last chance to save the world.

It’s thrilling when the danger isn’t real.

But now it is.

The forests burn. The rivers shrink and fade. The warming seas climb higher on our shores. The living world that gives us life now fights.

And now the edge has come for all of us.

Rage, rage against the dying of our world.

This danger brings no thrill for us to chase. No game, no ride, no tale upon a screen. For now the life we fight to save is ours.

Rage, rage against the dying of our world.

Fight for the road that makes your heartbeat race. Fight for the river roaring through the stone. Fight for the mountain calling you to climb.

Rage, rage against the dying of our world.

Fight for the forests standing green and wild. Fight for the oceans rising with the moon. Fight for the wild that taught us how to live.

Rage, rage against the dying of our world.

Fight for the thrill of everything to come. Fight for tomorrow and the chance to live.

For only while we live can we truly feel alive. Fallow me! Let us rage. Rage againstthe dying of our world.