“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

It’s a funny way to title a post, I’ll admit. But it sums up the method by which we all experience life.

We “experience” experiences. And in the sphere of experience we walk toward the finality of our earthly lives either taking them with us, or leaving them behind as misunderstood puzzles that we decided not to solve.

For all of us, so much remains unsolved.

I think it’s safe to say that lately we’ve all been a bit out of sorts, that our stress levels have been tipping the scale. But this is only part of our experience. We all have so much more to discover, to learn and to allow into our lives.

When I think back to the first time I ever experienced teasing and ridicule, my earliest memory brings me back to the age of 6. I was riding bikes with the neighborhood kids and one came around who I hadn’t seen before. He knocked me off my bike and spat in my face.

I’ll never forget the rank smell of his saliva.

This was an experience that made me wise to my surroundings. It was one that made me wary of other people and their intentions. And it was perhaps the first time when I understood that not everyone was “nice.”

But this is how we learn, by experience. However, we should be cautious not to take our personal experiences to heart and expect others to feel the same as we do about them.

I’m not saying that other people don’t mind getting spat on. I’m simply pointing out that when one person walks into a room, his experience will be entirely different from yours. Many other people have been spat on, and all of their experiences are intrinsically different. Some even might contend that an experience such as described could change their entire demeanor for years to come, even so far as to shape their world view.

And I’m sure it has.

No matter where we walk in life, we take in experiences constantly. It’s how we navigate our world. It’s how we stay safe and how we communicate.

Experience forms and shapes us all.

So it becomes our duty to experience our experiences with a note of mindfulness, attuned to all of our surroundings.

We should all walk gently, but our voices should all be loud enough to hold a place in life. And it is our life experience that shapes our voice.

Don’t let your experiences be left as a pile of jigsaw pieces, misaligned and forgotten in the corners of puzzle box. Let them fit fluidly into your life.

Allow them to be as they are, for you and you only, without judging others of theirs.

So please, be mindful of how you relate your experiences. Not all will share your view.

And we shouldn’t expect them to.

Travel well.