The Way I Like to Live

Let me tell you about an ordinary day of mine.

I get up at six every morning. First I exercise for a while, and then I have a proper breakfast.

I take the time to put on a little makeup. Not for anyone else to see, just because I want to meet the day feeling clean and put-together.

Then I ride my bike to work. When I get to the building, I order a Starbucks. With that coffee in hand, my day's work begins.

I love the ride to work. Cycling along, the wind on my face, the sun on my skin. The little flowers and grass by the road, freshly rained on, all of them so full of life. In that moment, everything is just beautiful. I often feel like I'm the richest person in the world.

Now and then, I travel. I stop, and go see somewhere else, some other scenery.

That's more or less my life. Nothing earth-shaking, just one day after another, lived simply and steadily.

But I quite like living this way.

Up at six, exercise, eat well, tidy myself up, work in an honest and steady way. These small things, done over time, I've found, keep me grounded, and give me a kind of freedom and contentment inside.

Later, I slowly came to understand something.

What I love isn't only these particular little things. What I love is the state behind them. It's simply being myself, freely, being a whole and complete me.

And I've found that this kind of freedom has nothing to do with age, and nothing to do with whether you're poor or rich.

No matter how old you are, whether you're poor or rich, you can be free, and be your whole self. Do what you feel like doing, love what you love, without always worrying about how others see it, or whether it's appropriate.

I used to always want to live a remarkable life. What I imagined as remarkable was doing something big, something grand and dramatic.

But later, when I came back to being my whole self, I found that I seem to be making new discoveries all the time, creating new things all the time. Every day, I'm exploring this world, full of curiosity about it.

It turns out that every ordinary day of ours can be remarkable. Being remarkable doesn't have to mean doing something big. It's just this: living each ordinary day well, with curiosity, and with fresh eyes.

When a person can be free like that, and be their whole self, I think that's already a very good thing.

This is the way I like to live.

— Marie, Founder of Lyfairs