a time to live, a time to die

Time is like an escalator – we’re all on a contraption that continuously moves forward whether we like it or not.  Whether you’re further up on the escalator or behind, it doesn’t matter – we’re all under the mercy of time and we’re all subject to an inevitable end.   

 

The same clichés seem to be said year after year: “times flies!”, “Can you believe it’s already 2007, 8, 9?”, “Where did the years go?”  We’ve all at one time have been stopped in our tracks, stunned by how swift and sneaky time seems to be.  I look around me and the evidence is clear: babies have grown to be walking, talking toddlers; grey hairs have begun to sprout on my head, and winter - for the 35^th time in my life - has once again reared its ugly head.  

 

This year, what I’ve resolved is not to be so shell-shocked by the unrelenting speed of time.  I’m going to embrace the fact that minutes turn into hours, hours into days, days into weeks and so on, and that 2010 is only but another breath and wink away.  In light of this, I’ve also come to a sobering realization that my death is also but a turn-of-the-corner away. 

 

And this is not to sound morbid or depressing.  This is a truth that everyone needs to look at square in the eye.  And what’s more sobering than a good splash of reality in the face?  Don’t you find that people are always the most contemplative at funerals?  It’s only when we hold up the reality of death into the foreground of our thoughts that so many, many things that we invest in seem to be so meaningless.  It was at my own father’s funeral 10 years ago, in the midst of the shock and grief over my loss, that I was able to conclude that only my relationship with God and my relationship with others is what really mattered in this lifetime. 

 

So this year, I’ve resolved to be friends with death.  To walk with it hand-in-hand to help me weed out all the things that work to choke all meaningfulness and purpose out of my life that inevitably robs me from living with abundance.   Death will be my key to living.

 

"Death is more universal than life; everyone dies but not everyone lives" A. Sachs

 

"Do not fear death so much, but rather the inadequate life"  Bertolt Brecht

 

 

 

Comments

[Alisa Kim]

Anna--look how much you've written. Pretty soon you'll have enough for a book :)