Thinking about Life

Since I was a little girl, I have been amazed by how unpredictable, and complicated life could be. I have always had a feeling of lack of control when thinking about our journey through life.  I have heard so many theories about the evolution of the Earth and the Universe, and it does not make sense to me how nature can be so perfectly designed but at the same time so randomly unpredictable.

I have finally given up on it. I do not want to know where we come from or why things happen anymore.  Last year was especially
challenging for us.  It was filled with unexpected illness in our family, financial strain, and unusual events. When that happens, you feel impotent and with a sense of unfairness.  At the same time, you ponder what's important in life.

It is so easy to fall into the trap of living to acquire and accomplishing things. Since that is the way society measures success, we all do it and get overwhelmed by it.  It is so nice to have the ability to buy whatever we want, whenever we want to, right?   However, it is tough to balance life so that we can work and get the things we want to but we can also spend time with our families, relax, appreciate nature, meditate, and become more connected as a person.

What is it that we read so much about how important taking care of ourselves is but we cannot seem to apply it consistently in our lives?  In the past few years, I have made drastic decisions in my career path.  Decisions that have impacted my life in a very positive way.  We, as a family, have had to make some financial adjustments but to my surprise even when at the beginning it made me feel really anxious, it has not been as difficult as I thought it would be.

As a society, we have lost so much in our quest to become "successful" people. We do not have time for anything anymore. This past holiday season I was amazed how everything was done electronically.

 

We do not connect with people anymore. We do not receive holiday cards anymore; we do not bake, we do not cook, we do not sing. I have personally refused to stop doing the fun things that made life a special one.

I enjoy so much sitting down and writing a note to my family and friends wishing them a wonderful new year.  I love taking pictures and sharing them with the people I care about.  It is one of the things that bring me so much joy.

It is interesting how taking a picture has become a sin these days. People are so afraid that a picture is going to end up on the internet that I wonder what is going to happen when we pass away, and our kids do not have a tangible memory of all the moments they shared with us.

I refuse to become paranoid about this. Am I cautious? Yes, I am.  However, I am also aware of all the joy that is reminiscing my childhood by looking at old photos and videos brings to my life. Every time we want to have a good laugh, we put on an old family movie and re-live those moments when our daughter was little and spent time with my parents and all the happiness they experienced with her.

Life is time-bounded. We are born, and there's going to be an end. We should not look at life as it is going to be eternal because when we do that, we always procrastinate having fun and enjoying the present.

We often think that "when we retire" we are going to enjoy life. What we do not think about is that if we did not take care of ourselves because we were always working, when we retire we could face so much tiredness and illness or many other situations that they will prevent us to enjoy it.

We should make our priority to live in the present. Life will take care of itself and when our time comes to leave this planet, our family will always treasure those moments and will remember us with joy and happiness. That is the true purpose of our journey. Have a wonderful year!