Good to the Last Drop
1,348,846,786 seconds and ticking...
So I have a limited time in the world. I have been thinking about life quite a bit lately. I am not so sure why. I don't have a life-limiting event looming over me. I haven't recently lost someone near to me. Slowly though, for years probably, this idea has been bubbling up in me. I love life. I think it is an amazing gift. I appreciate the beautiful moments with family and friends. I try to stop, notice and experience the sounds, smells and all the life that is going on all around me, but I fail so much.
There are so many important things that I let go. Why are they important outside of the fact that they have value to me? They probably aren't, but that is part of the point. We all make sacrifices. Sacrifices are part of life and they are part of what make things valuable. If we could have everything, then nothing would have value. This is the same with life. It is part of why life is so precious. Think about immortality. If you were immortal, what would you do? I think I would try to learn everything. This seems like an impossible endeavor, but if you couldn't die; time wasn't an issue, you would eventually accomplish this and then what? What would the value of a second be if it were endlessly replaced by another?
Possibly the most incredible and most wondrous gift that could have ever been bestowed upon us was our mortality. It gives our time here great value. It makes our living all the more rich. Once a mayfly reaches adulthood, it doesn't even eat. Within three weeks it mates and dies. My guess is that's why it doesn't spend any time vegged out in front of SpongeBob SquarePants. It is engaged in living.
Back to sacrifices though, I believe that sacrifice is part of life and it is part of what gives our activities value. When I get a chance to go camping (which I love) it is that much more enjoyable. Sacrifice also helps us to build bigger and more important things. Sometimes things that are bigger than our lives. Think of all the brave soldiers that have sacrificed their lives so that the bigger ideal of freedom can prevail.
So though I believe that we can't have everything and that nothing will turn out exactly as we would like it to, I also believe that most of us can find a way to fulfill most of our needs if we are thoughtful and stop to look around us and take inventory.
What is important to me? What do I need to have a balanced life so that I can enjoy it rather than simply rush through it? Hmmm... Well how would I savor a really great cup of coffee? I think it might be just that simple.
Say an archaeologist friend of mine unearthed an urn of coffee beans from ancient Egypt. Some lost art had enabled them to be perfectly preserved. After deciphering the glyphs she learned that they were a form of coffee that at the time was extremely rare and only consumed by the greatest of the Pharaohs. The beans were so rare that they were preserved in a tomb for a particularly mighty Pharaoh to consume in the afterlife. Rare 4000 years ago, they would undoubtedly be the only ones left anywhere in the universe now. Well my friend being a coffee lover like me (and truly a good friend) brought them over and we ground them up and put them in the best coffee maker we could find. How would I savor THAT cup of coffee? I can tell you it wouldn't be as I was running around trying to find my belt or shoe before I dashed off to be eight minutes late for work. I would sit down in a quiet place and probably with someone I cared about. I would minimize the distractions... and sip. I would thoughtfully consider the taste, move it all around on my tongue, take in the aroma and feel that cup of coffee. I would enjoy it for what it was; a precious one-of-a-kind gift from my friend.
That's what I want to do with my life.
Mmmm good.
So I have a limited time in the world. I have been thinking about life quite a bit lately. I am not so sure why. I don't have a life-limiting event looming over me. I haven't recently lost someone near to me. Slowly though, for years probably, this idea has been bubbling up in me. I love life. I think it is an amazing gift. I appreciate the beautiful moments with family and friends. I try to stop, notice and experience the sounds, smells and all the life that is going on all around me, but I fail so much.
There are so many important things that I let go. Why are they important outside of the fact that they have value to me? They probably aren't, but that is part of the point. We all make sacrifices. Sacrifices are part of life and they are part of what make things valuable. If we could have everything, then nothing would have value. This is the same with life. It is part of why life is so precious. Think about immortality. If you were immortal, what would you do? I think I would try to learn everything. This seems like an impossible endeavor, but if you couldn't die; time wasn't an issue, you would eventually accomplish this and then what? What would the value of a second be if it were endlessly replaced by another?
Possibly the most incredible and most wondrous gift that could have ever been bestowed upon us was our mortality. It gives our time here great value. It makes our living all the more rich. Once a mayfly reaches adulthood, it doesn't even eat. Within three weeks it mates and dies. My guess is that's why it doesn't spend any time vegged out in front of SpongeBob SquarePants. It is engaged in living.
Back to sacrifices though, I believe that sacrifice is part of life and it is part of what gives our activities value. When I get a chance to go camping (which I love) it is that much more enjoyable. Sacrifice also helps us to build bigger and more important things. Sometimes things that are bigger than our lives. Think of all the brave soldiers that have sacrificed their lives so that the bigger ideal of freedom can prevail.
So though I believe that we can't have everything and that nothing will turn out exactly as we would like it to, I also believe that most of us can find a way to fulfill most of our needs if we are thoughtful and stop to look around us and take inventory.
What is important to me? What do I need to have a balanced life so that I can enjoy it rather than simply rush through it? Hmmm... Well how would I savor a really great cup of coffee? I think it might be just that simple.
Say an archaeologist friend of mine unearthed an urn of coffee beans from ancient Egypt. Some lost art had enabled them to be perfectly preserved. After deciphering the glyphs she learned that they were a form of coffee that at the time was extremely rare and only consumed by the greatest of the Pharaohs. The beans were so rare that they were preserved in a tomb for a particularly mighty Pharaoh to consume in the afterlife. Rare 4000 years ago, they would undoubtedly be the only ones left anywhere in the universe now. Well my friend being a coffee lover like me (and truly a good friend) brought them over and we ground them up and put them in the best coffee maker we could find. How would I savor THAT cup of coffee? I can tell you it wouldn't be as I was running around trying to find my belt or shoe before I dashed off to be eight minutes late for work. I would sit down in a quiet place and probably with someone I cared about. I would minimize the distractions... and sip. I would thoughtfully consider the taste, move it all around on my tongue, take in the aroma and feel that cup of coffee. I would enjoy it for what it was; a precious one-of-a-kind gift from my friend.
That's what I want to do with my life.
Mmmm good.
posted by Grimlaw at 3:56 AM
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