So I am musing about the reason for existence….and why we go all out to do the things we do. Is it for fame, fortune, friends, family? So, after you’ve accomplished all your goals and scaled all your mountains, what was the meaning of it all?
I look at the little girls laughing, squealing as they chase each other around the compound. I follow the steps of a loving couple hand in hand, going for a stroll…I look into the sky, and let the wind fan my face, as I hear a swallow tweet swiftly by. Life can be so simple, if you let it. But we’ve been taught that you must achieve…you can’t be resting on your laurels. Your neighbour is ‘burning the midnight oil while you while your days away…daydreaming of a brighter day’.
I’ve recently attended a number of funerals, and they left me wondering what the critical points in my life were…one was of a young man (reviled, having departed suddenly, due to a fatal car crash) and the other, an elderly lady (well loved and spoken of in her community). Both experiences and the conversations that followed their demise, left me with very varied emotions.
You’d have thought the young man’s absence would have created a sigh of relief; no more ‘incidences’ or public embarrassments, no more late night phone calls to come rescue him from a ”sticky situation for the nth time, no more rendezvous with shady characters etc. But the wailing that accompanied his interment left me puzzled about human frailty and emotional connections…this thread called Life.
On the other hand, the old woman’s celebration service was a picture in calm and serenity for all concerned. I actually wondered if they were imagining her departure from their midst. They spoke like she was actually still present physically in the service! No teary farewells, no extended hugs and nerve-racking sobs, no solemn intonations
…just Thanksgiving…for a Life Well Lived! What exactly does that mean? Who gives the standard, the measuring rod of who lived the best life?
How do the surviving relatives know with certainty that they ‘ran their race well’?
Deep down I was left with many questions…was this just for public display but they had niggling unanswered questions of their own, beneath the surface?
Was there anyone brave and confident enough to allow them to freely express any lingering doubts, apprehension, untimely loss and the grief associated with that sudden-ness of it…
Where do we go to show our accolades? Man’s apparent recognition and approval of our tasks, now well completed?So, as I participated in 2 families wakes and sending off departed ones yet again, Life left me wondering…What are you living for?
Does it give you the satisfaction you want, deep down, without regrets?
Is there anything you’d undertake from a different perspective, if you knew that it would be ‘Audited’ tomorrow? 🙂
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Christine is passionate about working with high achieving women who are not where they want to be. She teaches them how to communicate with Confidence and Clarity towards Personal Fulfillment, Living Passionately and impacting their world. An Events Management Consultant and Motivational Speaker, she is an avid reader and enjoys making friends, travelling, the theatrical arts and cookery. "Entertainia" is her middle name...