We all live life. Or
so we think! We all live, while life just passes us by actually. We think we are
living, but mostly, we are just passing through.
Then there are moments
in between when we wake up, questions filling our minds, where we ask what is
life or at times knowing THIS is life. But then that too passes and we quickly
get back to our so called “lives”. Technically yes we are all living, but in
reality ARE WE?
When did you have you
last hearty laugh? When did you last just sit doing nothing and watch the
wonders of this world, the trees, the flowers, the birds, the clouds, the
waves, the leaves falling off the tree? When did you last just stand in the
window for 10 minutes just feeling the cool breeze on your face? When did you
last just walk in the rain and soak yourself?
When did you just sit around with your family or friends or relatives,
and listen to what was really going on with them? I mean really listen? And the
list is endless, and we know it.
As I ask these
fundamental questions, more come to your mind. Cycling the by lanes, walking
barefoot in the grass, lying down on our backs in the open and watching the
clouds float by or form shapes, trying to count the stars in the sky. OR sit and
watch our favorite movies back to back with our friends all day, or just play
Carom or Monopoly, or just chill at a seaside shack the whole day with close friends
and/or family.
How many friends have
we made in our life so far? I mean those who were really close and dear to us.
How many have we kept in touch with? How many do we really catch up with and
really talk to? And how often? And am not asking about the FB poke or WhatsApp
joke or gyan sharing here. Am talking about real one on one conversation, in
person. Do we really know what’s going on with them or in their live and do
they know what’s going on in ours?
Did you notice how the
tree in the backyard of your childhood home has grown and become huge while you
were busy living your life. Have you noticed how your parents have grown older
and become more childlike while you have grown older and irritable? Have you
noticed how more money did not lead to more happiness actually but more wants
and needs? Have you noticed how the importance of saving for retirement has
actually taken over that pleasure of a sudden stop for an ice cream on the way?
Have you noticed how your cravings and desires for more material goods have
taken over the subtle pleasures of actual living.
Are we living life as
we should be and as we know should be or are we just following the hoards?
Now think: Remember
how you were honking impatiently at the old man trying to cross the road and a
school boy came and helped the man across. You used to be that boy. Remember
how you once rescued a kitten from a dog and got her home only to be shooed
away by your mother who won’t allow you to keep her home, and how you and your
friends then kept her on the terrace of the building in a box made of old
cartons and rags from home and secretly brought her milk and biscuits. You used
to be that girl.
Remember how you as a kid you always looked forward to the
weekend because you would get to spend time with Dad? Now he waits for those
once in a year vacations of yours when you will make time and go see him. And
at times two years because the last one you went for a vacation somewhere else.
Who are you now? Who
do you want to be? Where do you want to go? What do you want to do? And Are you
living Life? Really Living? The way you want to? Are you? Are we all???
