I’m Alive, Awake, Alert, Enthusiastic!

My son learned this song at summer camp, sung to a chirpy tune, “I’m alive, awake, alert, enthusiastic,” on repeat, and then, “I’m alive, alert awake, I’m alert awake alive, I’m alive, alert, awake, enthusiastic!”  And it’s got a head shoulders knees and toes, knees and toes kind of routine to match.

I imagined him in 106 degree heat being peer-pressured into chanting a state of being that perhaps wasn’t authentically, intrinsically, how he felt at the time and considered whether I should be concerned with implicitly endorsing forced positivity rather than acceptance of the full spectrum of is-ness at any given moment.

“Sing it, mom!” He commanded, on day 12 of winter break.  I felt none of those things.  I felt tired.  I felt, “Make it stop, I want to run away to an island.”  But I knew, I’d read, these are the times to cherish, or at least show up for.  And I am so very grateful for this life, even though I am tired and want to run away to an island sometimes.

And so I sang it, and I allowed it to infect me, and we screamed it, punk rock style, jumping up and down, and then we snuggled and fell into a (increasingly rare) cuddle puddle.  And so maybe I have a new mantra, a new mood-shifting somatic practice for vitality and energy. Or not.  I’m gonna keep going.

www.livingeveryminuteofit.com