Every once in a while, something happens to make you think about life.
Cheesy and I were having dinner when our landlady showed up with bloodshot eyes and a red nose. She said the new dryer would come tomorrow and, without pausing to take another breath, told us her husband had been hospitalized earlier this week. After a hectic rush to the emergency room and a series of tests, the medical team found a problem with his heart. He had gotten to the hospital just in time, they told her.
Apparently heart disease runs in his family because his father suffered a heart attack while enjoying a nice walk to a friend’s house. Later in the day, the police came to inform his wife of his death.
Life is short. And the end could come at any time.
Take, for example, my friend’s dad. He went to work in the morning like he did on any other day. After lunch, he didn’t feel well and decided to take a quick nap on the couch. He never woke up.
My cousin’s friend, a guy in his 30s, went jogging within his apartment complex. When the security guards found him, he was no longer breathing.
My grandfather, whom I’ve never met, fell from his bicycle one fine afternoon and died of internal bleeding a few days later when my dad was just a boy.
Even when death is not as sudden, news of its imminence can come out of the blue. Cheesy and I both lost our dads to cancer. A close friend of my mom’s succumbed to the same disease.
Nobody is ever prepared for life to end.
Maybe all we can hope for is to have lived a good life when the time comes.
I’m sure you’ve heard that that nobody on their deathbed has ever said, “I wish I had spent more time at the office.” I don’t know whether there’s any truth to this. I read somewhere that Conrad Hilton’s last words were about shower curtains, but then I also read somewhere else that it wasn’t true.
But forget about Conrad Hilton. This is one question only you can answer: What’s a good life for you?
For me, a good life is one spent experiencing as much of the world as possible and having fun with my loved ones. I have no problem putting my work in the backseat; money is just a means to an end and career achievements are just a bonus.
If you know your answer, you’re one of the lucky ones. Many people just go through the motions without ever realizing that there could be more to life. They end up wasting too much time on things that don’t bring them any meaning or happiness. And they may only realize this mistake when time is running out.
Don’t ever forget your answer. Write it down in several different places if you have to. Make it a priority and go make things happen.
Images: 1. José Goulão (CC BY-SA 2.0 License); 2. Colleen McMahon (CC BY 2.0 License); 3. Anna (CC BY 2.0 License).
Great post! To be honest, this is one of the things that made me decide to travel, I don’t want to be an old man saying to myself lots of “what if…” all the time. In the far future I hope to be a nice old man, but actually nobody knows if he or she will live another day, I just decided to live everyday as if it were the last one and enjoy more time with people I love too.
That is so true. Life is short and you should spend your time on things that matter the most to you.
Great piece of inspiration – very thought-provoking. I like the suggestion about writing it down and holding on to it.
Thanks, Ariana! Glad you enjoyed it. :)
I read a book once and ever since I live according to this: ” Enjoy the moment, future do not exists.” Every evening I ask my love what was his best moment of the day and I tell mines. This ensure me that every day is the best day ever and if this day was the last one, it really worth it.
I love your outlook on life and that’s a really sweet routine you have there, Zuzana! Definitely beats “how was your day?”. :)
I think it’s important to reflect on death the way you’ve done here. In our Western societies death is such a taboo, a negative and morbid subject that’s often avoided. It’s important to remind ourselves to value what we have while we have it and try to be grateful for all of our blessings.
I agree, realizing your mortality can be a positive thing.
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.” — Steve Jobs
Especially the “go make things happen” part is important.
A lot of people know what they’d like to do “someday”, they just never get to it.
That’s true. And partly because people think it has to be something big and earth-shattering from the get-go, when in fact it’s small things and baby steps that snowball into something big over time.