My reason for living used to be to go and see all of the brightest stars in the sky, including the ones that aren’t visible from my latitude, but I did that in 2005 when I went on vacation to Australia.
Haven’t really settled on a good new one.
Ooooo, now there’s a possibility…
I’m living to see what my daughter will be like, once she’s born.
To go on photography expeditions with my husband. 
Finally finish my degree and move forward in my career - where ever that may lead.
Part of me is living to piss off some people that would rather see me dead.
I’m living for my little girl, who brings me joy beyond measuring. I’m living for my wife, who’s my best friend and partner and soulmate. I’m living for delicious prime rib of beef au jus with a side of baked potato and asparagus, for baseball, for golf, for Civilization IV, for beautiful summer days, for the fun of Christmas morning, for the roar of celebration when the Sens score a goal, for good movies and good books, for a million other things. Life is pretty sweet if you know where to find it.
And, of course, to dance on the graves of my enemies! They’ll all perish in flames! AH HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAA!
I remember a quote from Albert Einstein:
“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile”.
That’s exactly how I feel.
I live for my wife, for the 6 dogs we’ve rescued, for my friends, and for everyone I care about, or will come to cross paths with.
Life is hard - no question, and the older I get, the harder it seems, especially when you start contemplating all the philosophical questions we eventually ask ourselves.
It seems the harder you think about these questions, the more fucked up you feel sometimes.
You guys might find this strange, but sometimes I think about what death will be like, and if I am enough time during death to have a thought process, I wonder what it will feel like to take my last breath, what the actual act of dying will feel like, and what happens next (if anything) Some people die very sudden and abrupt, and don’t have the luxury of having a last thought or a final feeling)
Does the energy surrounding my consciousness just dissipate into the atmosphere, or does it take on a consciousness of its own?
No I’m not religious, I am 100% agnostic, and to be anything else is to make assumptions I’m not in a position to make. (IMO)
One thing is certain, I love life, I love people, and helping people even in a small way gives me a feeling of purpose, it helps justify my existence.
Because I have boxes and boxes and boxes of books I haven’t read yet and several racks of DVD’s I haven’t seen yet (and I keep meaning to sign up for Netflix so I can start renting movies that I’ve wanted to watch but don’t want to buy).
Besides, I don’t much care for the alternative.
I live to nitpick grammar, e.g., “He hanged himself last night”. It’s a sad and obnoxious life.
On the bright side, I live for new fabric and quilts and people who are made happy by them. I am in a creative slump right now but I live with the hope that interesting, invigorating projects are down the road.
It’s better than the alternative.
Can’t top Aesiron’s post. Yep, Gotta agree.
I didn’t think I was living for anything ten years ago. These days, though, there are so many cool projects being done around me, including my own stuff, and the promise of greater things to come – I’m reading on to find out what’s in the next chapter of the book of my fate. So far, and lately, it’s been enthralling.
Right now I am living for money. I don’t have much money and I am working so hard to have more. Then I will do nice things for myself and others - like fix up my house, buy a television, and give more to charities that I like (Humane Society!!)
It might seem shallow that money is the crux of my life right now but it’s not so much money as the big achievement that it would be were I financially well-off. The climb means more than the goal, I guess.
BTW thanks for this thread. Someone I know (friend of a friend) committed suicide last night and I haven’t been able to figure out what to think yet. Dwelling on life is a nice thing to think about.
Right now I am living to help my wife complete our move. We still have to clean out the old apartment and put the new house together. Also, I am on leave this week and it just doesn’t feel right to kill myself when I am enjoying paid time off from work. After that, I guess I will have to go back to the fact that I have a $400,000 life insurance policy on my and there is no damn way I am going to let MrsSSGSchwartz have all that money without me there.
SSG Schwartz
Like a lot of other I’m living for my wife and son.
But I’ve often thought about what I’d do if I somehow lost them. While severe depression and mourning would occur I don’t think I’d ever resort to taking my life.
I think I’d be more apt to quit my job, sell everything I own, and see how far I can get just wandering the world.
Heh. If I had a similar insurance policy in place, it would impel me towards the opposite course of thought.
I’m living to provide for my wife and family, to see my three sons grown up and starting families of their own, and to try to do justice in my work as a magistrate. I’m living to keep in touch with my family and friends, and to enjoy their company. As a political junkie, I’m living to see the outcome of the next election, and the one after that, and the one after that. I’m living to read the books, see the movies, listen to the music and eat the meals that give me pleasure. I’m living for tomorrow, and the day after that, because living is something I know how to do. It’s a habit I hope I’ll never break.
I’m living because there’s still so much to do. And to think! Right now I’m thirty, and I’m about half-way through writing what I think is going to turn out to be a pretty good novel. Compared to the lame novel I wrote at 22/23, it’s much better. Ten, twenty years from now, with that many years of thoughts to sort through, I could be a much better writer than I am today. I want to find out if it will turn out that way.
I’m also hopeful that I’ll find a guy who’ll be foolish enough to want to put up with me forever
“The secret to life is enjoying the passage of time, there ain’t nothing to it, any fool can do it”
I find I don’t live for others, not my child, not my spouse. Their love makes my life most wonderful but I don’t live for them. I live for me. I am anxious to see who I can be, who I’ll become. I have always been a work in progress. Severe trauma early in life set me onto a path of self development that has kept me moving forward in life. I didn’t used to think I’d amount to anything, not that I’ll ever achieve anything the world would acknowledge as wonderous. But I don’t much care about the world. I’m only interested in achieving things that I think are wonderous though they may seem of no substance to the larger world.
There is still much of the world I would like to visit, wonderous things to read and learn, and a zillion great people I have yet to meet.
I suppose I live to, every once in a great while, see with new eyes - myself, my culture, my beloved others, a bird in the birdbath, it’s all good to me.
Thanks for giving us all a moment to pause and consider, ‘What are we living for?’, always a worthwhile exercise!
I learn something new everyday.
I live to see my students and teach them something, anything. I don’t care if it’s the math I’m currently teaching, another subject, or something more intangible and more important about life.
I live to love my family and friends. To hug them, to lean my head on their shoulders, to laugh with them and talk about commonplace nothings.
I live to write, draw, paint, and sing, because it is how I tell stories that will not stay shut up in my head.
I live to some day nurture and parent a child.
I live to repay the debts I owe others, financial, spiritual, and otherwise.
I live in the hopes that I might somehow make the world a better place.
Jeebus Friggin’ Heck, that’s a hell of a lot of pressure! (But it sure beats the alternative.)
Snails & garlic butter on toast, giggling babies, cute shoes, Harry Potter #7, my husband, pedicures, GTOs, purring cats, hockey, family, daffodils, friends, and a cold Bud at a small town rodeo in August.
And the Prozac that helps me realize that life is good.
I live for all that life has to offer.
Beautiful sunsets, thunderstorms rolling in, the discomfort of meeting the girlfriends parents the first time, the pain off loss, the sadness of lonliness. Each and every aspect of life is powerful and wonderful. Pain can be good when tempered with understanding and wisdom. The varied emotions of life is what draws me to live. The sheer potential and aspect of hope keep me going every day.
Anything can happen, sometimes it is good, sometimes it is bad, and every morning I wake up, I wonder “what will today hold, magic or mundanity.”
What am I living for? Revenge! Mwa ha ha ha ha haaaa!
And October. This may be the year I get fruit off my apple tree (damn squirrels). A crisp apple off your own tree on an October evening, looking for Orion, with the leaves rustling around you…