Life to the Full

April 14, 2024

This week I ran a half-marathon just for fun. Teresa and I woke up on Friday morning, laced up our shoes, and hit the pavement. The sun was shining, the playlist I’d curated was blaring in my ears, and my mind was fixated on how grateful I was to be able to run, and to do so with minimal pain and maximal enjoyment. I decided about a mile in that I’d focus on thankfulness to get me through, and that's exactly what I did.

Sylvia Plath has this fig tree analogy in her book The Bell Jar, which is a book I’ve never read, but most girls in their twenties are familiar with this quote because it’s a little haunting. It goes like this:

"I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet."

My thought to Sylvia: why not eat all the figs?

As I was running, I looked back on my life, full of gratitude for all the things I’ve gotten to do. I’ve been a daughter, a piano player, a water-girl for the high school basketball team, a student, a friend, a farmhand, a three-sport athlete, a YoungLife leader, a homecoming princess, a Coug, a sorority girl, a baker, girlfriend, a finance manager of a cafe, a hiker, a cart-girl at the golf course, a bartender, an unemployed-college grad, a nomad, a waitress, a wedding coordinator, a coffee shop starter, a church employee, a substitute teacher, a wine bar manager, a reader, a sommelier, a world traveler, a cellar hand, an English teacher, a semi-decent runner and karaoke singer and blog writer, and the list goes on.

There are so many more “figs” I’d like to add to that list someday: a cool aunt, a homeowner, a winemaker, a wife and perhaps even a mom, an author, a really good golfer, etc. but only in due time. For now, I’ll enjoy the figs I have and keep on trying to live life to the full, saying yes to whatever is placed in my hand.

It’s Easter week this week, Holy Week. This is a week where we remember that Jesus came, died, and rose again to pay the price for our sins out of his overflowing love for us. My dear friends, whether you are a Christian or not, I’d like to note that Jesus came so that we “may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). He came not to suppress us with rules of religion and feelings of guilt and shame, in fact he detested those things. He came to meet us where we are at, and to be a friend to us. He came to set us free.

Living in confidence that I am fully known and fully loved by my Creator makes living life to the full so much easier, because I have faith that whichever path I take or metaphorical “fig” I choose, all things will work together for good (Romans 8:28). Even things that don't involve me, things that I have no control over, scary things like politics and climate change, I feel like I can live fully and not fearfully because I know who holds the future.

Because He lives

I can face tomorrow

Because He lives

All fear is gone

Because I know

He holds the future

And life is worth the living

Just because he lives

Because He Lives • Zan Fiskum

SO happy Easter week everybody. Whether you are a believer or not, I hope you know how loved you are, just as you are. Don’t forget to live life to the full!