Everything has a life-cycle, birth-life-death. It doesn't matter what is investigated, no matter how solid and strong something seems, eventually it will become dust. This impermanence of life scares some people as it means that they and all they have created, protected, collected and cared for will one day be gone too. I see it as freeing.
It means that we are open to try things, experiment and be curious with life as life is not set in stone, and even if it was, eventually the stone will crumble into dust too. We may tie ourselves to the circumstances of the moment and do all we can to hold on without wanting the next moment to arrive.
Seeing the eventual death of all things frees us to live more fully and opens us to enjoy the people we have in our lives now, instead of tomorrow. We can get to know them and connect with them at many different stages and build an understanding on how we ourselves choose to live.
Do we give or do we take, lend a hand or hold down, support or harm? How much effort are we willing to put into a life where our legacy is limited to a few generations at best. History is both unforgiving and forgiving as soon, even the details of the most glorious and heinous of lives are blurred and lost until the brightest of achievements and darkest of acts are little more than footnotes, if that.
We can see it now that the further we move from history, the closer it gets to repeating as flawed positions rise in as if first discovered. All they have done is uncovered something old, claimed it as their own and act as if it is of utmost importance once again.
The way of the world perhaps, or at least, the way of the human world for we are impermanent also, our entire species hinges on a narrow band of circumstance in time and if conditions shift too far this way or that, we are also banished into the land of what was. And perhaps, there will never come another to uncover our civilizations or dig up our bones.
Does that mean that what we do does not matter because it will not matter one day? Some may see it this way but I do not. What I do matters a great deal for at least while I am conscious, I care, I strive, I look for ways to improve myself and add value to the world that is always crumbling. For me, this gives my life meaning.
My thoughts, words, actions and the entirety of my existence will quickly sink into oblivion once I am gone which means, the only value of me is in this moment now. This requires me to take care of myself, take care of those who are important to me and use what I have in the best ways I can in this moment, not tomorrow as life passes by too quickly to wait.
I have lost some friends unexpectedly recently and the older I get, the higher the count becomes. They had families, friends and dreams too, they worked hard at a range of things, enjoyed life, were happy, sad and occasionally depressed. They were often thinking about what the future holds, wondering what their children would grow to become, concerned with the daily trivialities of news and society. Are their lives wasted?
As the leaf grows, it absorbs the energy from the sun and helps the tree to develop but, all leaves eventually fall from the tree and flutter to the ground and disappear. This may be seen as the end of life or the energy for the next to begin.
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]