I accepted a challenge to write my thoughts on “Live while you live”: the closing statement on my fifteen-year Mental Matters column. I’m finding it not to be so eas

For years, I thought my closing line was my original creation. Silly girl—I’m not sure anything is original anymore other than a newborn baby.

Since I took on the challenge, I started with my good friend, Google, and this is what she unveiled:

• It has roots in a Latin Proverb, which translates to “While we live, let us live.”

• Journalist John Gunther used the phrase in his book Death Be Not Proud (1949), writing, “Live while you live, then die and be done with”.

• Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote in 161-180 CE in his Meditations: “Do not act as if you’re going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good”.

• Author Leo Tolstoy wrote, “But live while you live, tomorrow you die . . .”.

• Playwright William Saroyan in his play, The Time of Your Life (1939), used, “In the time of your life, live—so that in good time there shall be no ugliness or death for yourself or for any life your life touches”.

In another search, I found that ‘Live While You Live’ is a book authored by Thomas Griffith and published in 2019. I have not seen or read the book, and it sounds like a collection of work deemed by scholars to be culturally significant to civilization’s knowledge base. The original was published in 1842, proving my closing is not original.

When I carefully chose those four (three) strong words, I was thinking of mental health and searching my imagination for what could be an easy-to-remember yet meaningful motto for each article.

Here is my attempt at recalling what was in my mental December 2010 mental toolbox, the month Delinda Korrey first published Mental Matters in the South Platte Sentinel.

LIVE while you LIVE—LIVE is on both ends—signifying balance

• If you’re alive, make the best of each moment, opportunity, challenge, or heartache.

• A minute passed is a minute gone.

Live WHILE you live—don’t just dream or hope—do it.

• If not now, when?

• Maximize your time, talents, and treasures.

Live while YOU live—Know thyself.

• Focus on YOU—YOU are the boss of YOU.

• Be mindful—stay connected to all of YOU. (thoughts, feelings, words)

I think of that motto when I’m alone too much, stay inside too long, or say, “No, now isn’t a good time” too often. “Live while you live” gets me up and going, or when needed, lets me slow down and rest.

What do those three words mean to you?

Until the next time: Live while you live.

Jennifer Goble, Ph.D., LPC, is the author of “My Clients…My Teachers,” and the blogger and writer of Rural Women Stories: www.ruralwomenstories.com.

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