(This is me)
The life span, that which is placed on a gravestone, is usually measured from the day and year you were born until you died, is this the correct way to measure it?. Here I leave a story that will make us reflect on the time in which we live.
"One day a man came to a beautiful but also mysterious place that caught his attention. The man entered that hill and walked slowly among the trees and white stones. He let his eyes perch like butterflies in every detail of this multicolored paradise.
On one of the stones, he discovered that inscription: "Here lies Abdul Tareg, lived five years, six months, two weeks and three days."
He was a little startled to realize that this stone was not just a stone, it was a tombstone. He felt sorry to think that a child of such a young age was buried in that place. Looking around, the man realized that the stone next door also had an inscription. He went to read it; said: "Here lies Yamin Kalib," lived three years, eight months and three weeks.
The man felt terribly dejected. That beautiful place was a cemetery and every stone, a tomb. One by one he read the tombstones; all had similar inscriptions: a name and the exact life of the deceased. But what most connected him with the terror was to verify that the one that had lived more time had passed but barely the six years.
Embarrassed by terrible pain, he sat down and began to cry. The caretaker of the cemetery, who passed by, approached. "What about these people? Why so many dead children buried in this place?" He asked the caretaker.
The old man replied, "You can calm down, we have an old habit here, and I will tell you: when a young man turns fifteen, his parents give him a notebook. Once you enjoy something intensely, open the notebook and begin to write in it: to the left, what was enjoyed in the small and great details ... to the right, how long did the inner joy, happiness, last. The tombs you see here are not from children, but from adults, and the life time that says the inscription of the tombstone refers to the sum of the moments of true happiness of each one of the people who rest in this place. "
"So," continued the old man, slapping the back of his interlocutor, "when someone dies, it is our custom to open your notebook and add the time of your enjoyment, to write it on your grave, because it is, the one and only true lived time. "
You might, as you read this story, think that you simply carry a routine in your life, that you have not lived "The big thing" because you are always working or doing errands from home and it is just what I thought at that moment. That's why I urge you to stop a little to analyze your days, in what you invest your time; look at the 'little moment' that you shared with your family, the laughs with your friends at dinner, the sunset you watched on the way home, the conversations with strangers that you had while doing the bank row, the music you sang while you were stuck in the traffic at 5:00 pm, identify what you learned new on that day ... well, every little detail that you might overlook because you think it was nothing count in your life time, these are the ones that make you grow, those that generate a spark of happiness; the ones that make you who you are today. And if you cannot identify a moment so what are you waiting to change it? Do not let your life span be like a newborn’s!.
How will you measure your life time from now on? Start traveling more, laugh more, share with your loved ones more, dance, sing, cry, go to the limit, get out of your comfort zone, explore and venture, fall and rise again; because at the end of the day these will be the memories that will stay with us. Make sure that when the time comes you can say "I did it all".
(Not me but I took it)
All this pictures where taken with Nymeria (Nikon D5300 18-55mm), in some paradises we have here in Dominican Republic, will show them in detail in other posts.
(Inspired by.- I lived One Republic)