Running Out of Time

This morning I woke up thinking about death. Not in a morbid way, mind you; more along the lines of how death connects to life itself.

At first impression, the two seem quite opposite from one another, but when one looks closely, they are a mirrored image of each other. Think of the number 8, or better, the sign of infinity; one could fold the symbol in half, and see that the two halves match perfectly. Spiritually speaking, the symbol of infinity is used to represent the immortality of the soul, and its ability to shift between dimensions through the portals of birth and death. During life on earth, our soul absorbs everything it is exposed to, and stores the information which will be decoded after the soul has crossed through the death canal. Once able to download the information stored, it is able to analyze it, and assess what lessons have been learnt in full, as opposed to those that still need a little more practice.

Assuming that each “state of the soul” works in symbiosis with the other, it is safe to guess that awareness of one is essential in gaining full consciousness of the other. When we become aware of death consistently being a few fatal steps away from us, we can appreciate every moment we have, and make the most of every experience.

Imagine, this morning, that this is the last day of your life. What are you going to do with it? Are you going to waste it being angry? Being worried? Holding a grudge? Being high on any mind-numbing substance? Or are you going to truly live today, to breathe fully and forget all which weighs your soul down?

There is always time to hate and push away, but never enough to forgive and embrace. We get so uptight about unnecessary baggage, that we forget the greater meaning of this wonderful gift of life. Some numb themselves with unnecessary substances to cope, and rarely realize that our purpose is not one of sleeping life away but live it to the fullest. We came to live this earthly experience for a reason; if there was no need for us to undergo these experiences, we wouldn’t have been born.

Each moment we are allowed to draw a breath is a moment we can make a difference; it’s a moment we can take a stand for the greater good; it’s a moment we should live fully as if it was our very last.

Going Up

“Every day is my best day; this is my life. I am not going to have this moment again.” ~ Bernie Siegel

Just a few days ago, one of my neighbors walked by my house while I was working in the yard, and we talked for a few minutes. When she got ready to leave, I wished her a good day and resumed what I was doing; before I could turn away, she smiled and said: “ Oh, please, don’t wish me a good day; I’m glad it’s almost evening and this day is over.”

I asked her if anything was the matter, and she simply replied that nothing particularly good or bad had happened, but it had been a long day. After she was gone, I thought about what my neighbor said. Nothing monumental had happened, but here she was, walking on her own legs, breathing, and able to freely move around in a nice neighborhood at a relaxed pace – all things that someone living a harsher reality might have considered a slice of Heaven.

Her reaction was not too different from the response I’ve had from other people before, when I have asked how their day was going. “I need to find something to do to pass the day,” said one; “If I stay busy, at least the day moves faster,” said another. Are we really in such a rush to use up our days? Then what?

The average life of a human being is about 80 years, or the equivalent of about 28,000 days. By the time we have reached mid-life, we have already used approximately half of our supply, and that doesn’t factor in the fact that our number of available days could be cut down even smaller by illness or accidents.

Beginning in early childhood, we rush time – as toddlers we want to be big kids, as kids we wish to be teenagers, as teens we count days until we are adults, and as adults we fantasize about the days we will be able to retire and enjoy our golden years. By the time we get to the golden years, we wish we could turn back the clock because, quite often, we have wasted our lives maintaining our focus on the next target rather than making the most of what we had when we had it.

Imagine being in an elevator car in a museum – all floors have interesting exhibits, but as soon as we get out on one floor we are already thinking about all the neat stuff awaiting at the next level, and rush through the displays; by the time we get to the last floor, we can’t go any further, and one of the employees informs us that we need to move forward toward the exit because we can’t use the same elevator to go back down to the floors we have already visited. We leave the museum feeling that we have missed out on a lot; we could have made the most of our trip if we had taken the time to enjoy the exhibits on every floor rather than rushing through them.

In the film “Meet Joe Black”, the angel of death is thrilled at the opportunity of experiencing earthly life; a spoonful of peanut butter is interesting to him because he has never tasted it before. By the time we reach our adult years, we have experienced many things, but there are just as many we have never tried. They don’t have to be big or expensive experiences, but maybe just something outside our average routines – bringing warm socks to a state-run facility for the elderly, going to play with animals at a shelter, going to load groceries for the Angel Food Network, running meals to the disabled, trying a new, exotic food; the choice is endless, and the time commitment can be very flexible. Even a smile, a hug, or a few words exchanged with someone we normally wouldn’t entertain could make our days different and interesting.

It’s not difficult to make today a special day, one worthy of being remembered through time; and if someone is willing to eat a whole spoonful of peanut butter to try something new, we can at least be willing to dispense a genuine smile to the stranger we have ignored until now.

Seeds Swept in the Wind: Fate vs. Chance

Some palm readers believe that one’s future should be read from the lines of the right hand, as opposed to those in the left which are, they say, the lines of birth – the original blueprint of our destiny that was drawn prior to our arrival on earth. According to that theory, we are provided with two maps: one which reflects the plan we made before being born, and one – the right hand - which reflects the choices we will make during our journey.
At any given moment in our lives we are subject to meeting new people, entering new doors and closing others; are the events we live from day to day coincidental? Or are they points already charted on the map of our existence?
In my opinion, there is no such thing as coincidence; I believe we are born with a precise path to follow, which allows for slight revisions as we walk through life.
We are taught that humans have a gift of free will, but do we really?
If one considers the concept of time - and truly ponders on it – will realize that there is no such thing; time is merely a manmade illusion born out of sheer need to organize our existence through our limited five senses. Time is needed by our ego - which is born from our earthly body - but serves no purpose to our spirit, which is connected in nature to universal energy and is, therefore, timeless, ageless, birthless and deathless. Past, present and future are one, and are only separated by the need the human mind has to be in charge and control unfolding events.
According to this theory – if time is simply an illusion – things which are to unfold tomorrow already happened yesterday; we just have not reached them today. Many of the stars which shine brightly in our skies today have likely been dead for hundreds of thousands of years; their distance is just so great, that their light took that long to reach us and become visible to us.
Universal perfection does not allow for mistakes; we are born to the family which will create the perfect environment for the growth of our spirit, and meet countless people and situations which will support the lessons we need to learn. That said, the journey our soul chooses to embark on can sometimes be a bumpy ride, and it will take the strength of our spirit to understand the necessity of each experience and roll with the punches. We may be born to abusive parents, meet people who only seem to create obstacles, run into predicaments which will test the strength of our resolve; yet, when all is said and done, each of those situations will have taught us something, and our test truly is one of understanding the greater, unexplained importance of each occurrence.
We are the seed the wind of destiny is blowing around. We may land on fertile ground right away, or we may be deposited on barren environs for a while, waiting out our turn to be swept again toward greener grounds; or maybe we will die there, as our charted mission is that of drying in the sun and support the hungry bird who’s looking for nourishment to perpetuate its own soul agenda.
Whether our goal is that of taking center stage or merely operating the curtain ropes, our stay on earth – and that of other living beings - are all equally important, and have great value in the greater scheme of things. We are all but a drop in the vast waters of the ocean, but all together we create something powerful and beautiful, which will carry the tune of creation, and lead us harmoniously in a timeless dance of soul unity and life’s true purpose.