Good morning friends,

I hope you've had a nice week. Our weather has been, as us Scots would say, dreich. Sometimes, this can affect your mood but with the end of February in sight, I'm excited for Spring. Hopefully, some beautiful pictures of the change in seasons and light will appear in a letter for you soon. It goes without saying, if you have any wonderful photos of nature where you live and regularly walk, please send them to me without hesitation.

As I delve deeper into the realms of fuller living, I find themes appearing. One of those is how this feels different at different ages. I am in my thirties, but there is the common anecdote of looking back at life with regret - 'wishing I had lived more' etc.

I feel once you realise this, it seems quite obvious. Common regrets such as 'why did I work so much?' but we still blindly walk into these traps despite our awareness. I guess this can sometimes be to fill gaps we feel can't remain empty. Telling ourselves we should do certain things due to certain beliefs or expectations.

But I think the term living fully can be categorised into different stages of life and/or age. I like to think that we don't want to miss out on things at a certain age. I think when we're late teens, we don't want to miss out on the experience of further education like university so we do it at that stage of life. But do we do it fully? That's for you to decide.

A difficult part of this awareness of living fully is knowing in that moment if you're making the most of it. You'll only know in hindsight but there are some concepts that I think might help you on your way. Ask yourself if you were to look back in 10 years time, would you smile thinking about the experience? Would you have pride? Did you enjoy it?

I remember when I was 20, I went to the USA for 2 months and lived over the summer there in the years of 2012 and 2013. I can ask myself those questions above and peacefully smile. These core experiences in life are what make it full. There is plenty of life that is chronic and repetitive but it should be one that makes you proud and one that is full of as much wholesomeness as possible.

An encouraging example of how we can live more fully yet slightly against the tide would be choosing to change careers when we're older. I remember I did this at 26 (and I thought I was old then!) But it was liberating. I felt alive! And if you have the right reasons to do something like this despite it being into the unknown, then it can be the sort of thing you look back and think was the best thing you ever did.

Hopefully my journey isn't even halfway there yet, but I'm on the lookout for how to continue to live fully every moment. Even if living fully is 20 minutes to have coffee and write. I know I'll look back with a smile and remember being able to do so with a baby was an achievement!

I'd love to hear any stories you have about living fully from a certain time in your life. This is literally the zest of life. Write to me with any stories you have.

Best,

Lawrence