Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside while still alive.
Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside while still alive.
Life is truly yin yang.
Roger Waters said it best:
… And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun but it’s sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way but you’re older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death
How many parts of your daily ritual make you feel truly alive? What behaviors have you implemented in order that you might experience these rituals in a way that is meaningful and engaging?
For whatever reason, the sunrise became incredibly important to me about 10 years ago. In this time, I have done many things to ensure that I get to see it. It’s only two minutes long and more often than not, it’s just what I deem, “ the fireball in the sky,“ and nothing more. On the days in which mother nature has added some clouds to the texture, I find myself considerably more ecstatic for the light show. And in climbing to a mountain peak, I am often times treated to seeing several of the planets before they retreat below the horizon. This leaves me feeling like a citizen of the universe.
There are so many variables in life, each fully capable of causing us to disengage and see the world through the myopic perspective that anyone of those variables creates for us. Personal, professional, political, psychological, religious and more. Any of these are able to weigh in heavily on our lives, leaving us less conscious and more lost in a fog.
We get heavily focused on any of these topics, and the life cycle continues to revolve. The Earth completes a rotation and the sun rises. Sometimes, as I watch the beautiful sun being revealed as the earth rotates the horizon in order that I might see it, I reflect on aspects of my life that are going to my satisfaction and find gratitude in that quiet moment. My strong will and determination are going to catapult me into the current day with all the verve necessary to surpass the goals that I have set for myself. But without the reflection and gratitude from what has already transpired, I am reduced to strictly an output system that does not appreciate the fruits of labor and the joys which accompany such fruits.
So I believe the secret words which embody the solution to today’s aphorism are “savor“ and “gratitude.“
There are many things that money cannot buy, one of them is yesterday. Yesterday is gone forever and fairly soon, today will be gone as well and you will only be left with tomorrow.
The motivational statement, “ make every day count,“ is a tired phrase that has been leveraged in so many different ways as to leave all of us deaf to the expression and the lesson. But the truth is, there’s nothing more important, because it is all so finite and therefore, valuable in ways that we cannot begin to imagine.
Some dreams are born for fruition and others will never be. The ones that blossom make us feel immortal and the ones that do not, can plague us forever.
It is the ones that do not come true that are potentially a cause for slowly dying while still alive. But, given that life is perceptual, the choice to enable a lost dream to slowly wither our enthusiasm is precisely that. A choice.
I live life as a dreamer. Some of my dreams instantly come to fruition, others may lay dormant for decades and may or may never be realized. Rather than holding all of my hopes and aspirations in a single concept, I have found it to be a much better strategy to enable lots of dreams to be gestated and then become considerably more selective as to which ones I am going to put the weight and power of my being into seeing all the way through. This solution creates a much more comfortable relationship between dreams and mental state of existence. Having lots of dreams creates an ever-increasing fertile imagination. I think that’s healthy for people to cultivate within themselves, regardless of the category of the dreams. Then, as some grow and others get put on a back burner, we are much more likely to feel positive about things because we are self determining our future.
“… Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I’d something more to say.”
I am certain that the 20-year-old Roger Waters who was drafting these lyrics had not contemplated the global impact that Pink Floyd would ultimately create. When Darkside of the Moon came out, it flew up to the top of the charts and stayed there longer than just about any album, ever. What is it about this album that hooks so many ages?
Is it poignancy, truth, or just amazingly great music? Whatever it is, it most certainly left an indelible mark on time. And perhaps, that is what ultimately delivers the feeling that perhaps each rotation of the Earth that happens under your watch was worth your time.
Happy Saturday!
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