In our journey from A through Z we get to haul out some fun stuff when we get to Z.

How much serious Z can there be, after all?

There's Zen and Zebra and Zeal, and you can always reZort to the theZaurus.

Part of a zest for living is playing. Playing after all, is one more way of knowing ourselves. Playing opens us to our spontaneity, to our sense of fun, to the wonderful broad perspectives our humour can reveal.

We can play our own best part in our lives with a sense of gladness and lightness, knowing that we're attentive to the direction of life itself through us. This sense of play gives dimension and dignity to the true work of our lives.

What is the true work of our lives?

It's giving our attention where it counts, being present to the here and now where we actually touch our lives, and trusting our lives to direct us effectively and appropriately.

We sustain a tangible zest in our lives when we live in the present, when we let go of manipulations and anxious or grandiose mental excursions out of the here and now.

When we relax into our own natural energy of the now, we're given clear focus, we get to taste and smell, to hear and feel. We get to be our lives instead of being worried onlookers wringing our hands on the sidelines, wondering what's going to happen.

We are what's happening.

The freshness of perspective we experience from living now also keeps our egos from becoming over-inflated, so we're not forever hurting ourselves as we bump into other over-inflated, bruised and bruising egos.

When we live with the kind of zest and energy that's grounded in our present reality, we get to be ourselves, get to be with other people who are just being themselves. We get to drop artificial boundaries, yet respect and revere the interactions of all beings.

We're at home everywhere when we live fully in the present undistracted by what's irrelevant. When we're fully present to our lives now, we're at home forever.