We have
learnt to add years to life, but we are becoming increasingly unsuccessful in
adding life to years.
Despite the clichés
− “living in the moment”; “live each day like it’s your last”; “count your
blessings” − we constantly seem to be waiting for life to happen.
It’s not
going to and it just did.
Just as we
spend time worrying about things that never materialise, we spend more time
waiting and wanting things to happen, but are often oblivious to them when they
do happen.
King Solomon
writes of this phenomenon in his song of songs: A prince bids his bride
farewell as he leaves on a lengthy journey, promising to one day return. Every
night his bride laments his absence before she goes to bed, hoping one day that
he’ll come back. Then, after many years, the prince returns and bangs on his
bride’s door, announcing his triumphant homecoming. Alas, she is so busy crying
herself to sleep, muttering, “If only my prince would return...”, that she
misses his knock. Eventually, the disenchanted prince shuffles away,
despondent. At that point it dawns upon the bride that she may have heard a
knock at the door. She rushes to open it ... only to find no one there.
So too with
life, we wait for our ‘moment’ to arrive. But when opportunity knocks, we are
too ‘busy’ to hear it.
A life well
lived is one lived in the present, not the future or the past.
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