49 soon .....
17885 days or thereabouts .....
There won't be another 49 years .....
THERE ARE A LOT OF REFLECTIONS of late, of things in life, of family and friends, of achievements and of failures, of opportunities and losses. Contemplation is a good thing. It puts things in perspective, doesn't it? No matter what we do and say at the end of the day we contemplate and review the laws that govern us and how we have matched up to their limits and standards. Humanity is such a frail thing that we have nothing to hang on to unless we have an eternal being that we love and believe?
And yet life is a journey. It is an interesting journey. What we do on this journey become the diary of our lives.... As in all journeys we have bitter and sweet moments. As adults we are knowingly and unknowingly pigeon-holed and classified by others all the time as to how our journey has been taken.
" How many children you have? "
" What do you do for a living? "
" How car do you drive? Where do you live? "
" What are your greatest achievements in life? "
Answers to these types of questions tend to define who we are and what we have.
The fact of the matter is these are important aspects to our lives. Our family, our children and grandchildren, what work we do, our material possessions in life and our legacies. But I am afraid some people tend to put more emphasis on these than necessary to make life journey an enriching one.
Yes having a loving family is an obvious top priority in our lives; so are the kind of work we do , are we well looked after in our later stages of life and do we feel fulfilled.
I envy those who can honestly say they are less important than other things in life. I truly do. I think they have a much higher perspective of life than I do. Yet again I have come to realize life is a balance, isn't it? It's good to have a good life just that what is good and what is not so good should not define us by some common societal expectations.
I don't have children yet I am happy that my family is relatively a happy one. It is characterized by a lot of laughter, sharing meals together and having meaningful conversations. Could I have a deeper relationship with my family? Sure I can. What about my friends?
I don't have many material possessions in life yet I am much more fortunate than those who are less well-off and are suffering than I. Could I have more physical possessions? Should I have them? Or why don't I share my possessions with those less well off?
Which brings me to what I have been contemplating lately .....
Should I be living as I have been as an adult as before or should I feel compelled to adopt some meaningful and personal changes? Will these changes create a positive outlook in my life? What would I look for in the life changes?
The answers I am tending towards are no and yes.
We spend a great part of our adult lives making wealth, as for me, some 23 years. in all Many go on to work for 10-15 more years. Some never stop working because they enjoy their career and work and some just have to. I am tending to understand this a little bit more nowadays and think that some lucky ones enjoy a balance of work that satisfy them, more so than others.
Out of the 23 years that I have been in full time employment I have always been challenged and loved a challenge. I have climbed to the epitome of my career in the corporate world, achieving accolades and results many would envy. I have been there and done that. And yet one day when I was 45 I knew the work I was doing to make a living in the corporate world would come to an end soon because I felt for the first time that I was only going to work for the money.
It became obvious for me when I began asking myself what I was really doing waiting for too many a flight at an airport to return home after yet another meaningless business trip. When I would doodle in my office thinking of other activities I would rather be in than stay in a job When I dreaded getting up in the morning and pretending that work was interesting. When I knew many around me were faking it in their quests for better positions and outcomes in the corporate world. I knew for a number of years over that period of time that I needed to do something else rather than being in a job. I was over it. Maybe it would have to be work that I rather enjoy doing, for less money. Maybe I needed to take some time off a regular job. Maybe I would rather not work all together and direct my energies to some other areas of interest. For a number of years, it was a constant struggle of staying in the corporate world and wanting out .....
I guess the test of the pudding is should we know our lives would end in 12 months what would we do differently with the time we have left? The answer would reveal our life priorities.
Then the inevitable happened. The job that I dreaded but provided relative calm and stability to a working man's life; ceased. It's been 15 months since I left that job and a full time employment. Apart from some moments of anxiety related to having to cope with financial commitments I have been much happier as a person on his finite journey .....
I am contemplative. I do not know yet what I want to "do" and "what I will become" but I am more conscious than ever that I am on a life journey and that for once, I can dictate which fork on the road I should go on; and I am allowed to back track if I find I do not want to go on farther than on that track.
I am beginning to realize the power of choice. And that choices define who we are and how we live our lives. Bad and good.
I am more and more hopeful that I shall live life for the next 23 years more fully than I had in the past 23 as a working adult. I do not regret a great deal about the past 23; I am more hopeful I shall not regret having lived it as I sojourn on .....
I guess the significance of the last 15 months for me is that it inspired me to think, and to rethink, every now and then, what exactly is the point of this life. What's worth investing in, putting energy into, cherishing, and re-living again and again? What when we die, would we like to look back on? It is very much a philosophical as well as a realistic mindset.
As in all life journeys I contemplate because I do not have the perfect answers. Yet again I know that for all my wants and needs in the rest of my journey I would be bright-eyed and unafraid of changes that would come my way.....
17885 days or thereabouts .....
There won't be another 49 years .....
THERE ARE A LOT OF REFLECTIONS of late, of things in life, of family and friends, of achievements and of failures, of opportunities and losses. Contemplation is a good thing. It puts things in perspective, doesn't it? No matter what we do and say at the end of the day we contemplate and review the laws that govern us and how we have matched up to their limits and standards. Humanity is such a frail thing that we have nothing to hang on to unless we have an eternal being that we love and believe?
And yet life is a journey. It is an interesting journey. What we do on this journey become the diary of our lives.... As in all journeys we have bitter and sweet moments. As adults we are knowingly and unknowingly pigeon-holed and classified by others all the time as to how our journey has been taken.
" How many children you have? "
" What do you do for a living? "
" How car do you drive? Where do you live? "
" What are your greatest achievements in life? "
Answers to these types of questions tend to define who we are and what we have.
The fact of the matter is these are important aspects to our lives. Our family, our children and grandchildren, what work we do, our material possessions in life and our legacies. But I am afraid some people tend to put more emphasis on these than necessary to make life journey an enriching one.
Yes having a loving family is an obvious top priority in our lives; so are the kind of work we do , are we well looked after in our later stages of life and do we feel fulfilled.
I envy those who can honestly say they are less important than other things in life. I truly do. I think they have a much higher perspective of life than I do. Yet again I have come to realize life is a balance, isn't it? It's good to have a good life just that what is good and what is not so good should not define us by some common societal expectations.
I don't have children yet I am happy that my family is relatively a happy one. It is characterized by a lot of laughter, sharing meals together and having meaningful conversations. Could I have a deeper relationship with my family? Sure I can. What about my friends?
I don't have many material possessions in life yet I am much more fortunate than those who are less well-off and are suffering than I. Could I have more physical possessions? Should I have them? Or why don't I share my possessions with those less well off?
Which brings me to what I have been contemplating lately .....
Should I be living as I have been as an adult as before or should I feel compelled to adopt some meaningful and personal changes? Will these changes create a positive outlook in my life? What would I look for in the life changes?
The answers I am tending towards are no and yes.
We spend a great part of our adult lives making wealth, as for me, some 23 years. in all Many go on to work for 10-15 more years. Some never stop working because they enjoy their career and work and some just have to. I am tending to understand this a little bit more nowadays and think that some lucky ones enjoy a balance of work that satisfy them, more so than others.
Out of the 23 years that I have been in full time employment I have always been challenged and loved a challenge. I have climbed to the epitome of my career in the corporate world, achieving accolades and results many would envy. I have been there and done that. And yet one day when I was 45 I knew the work I was doing to make a living in the corporate world would come to an end soon because I felt for the first time that I was only going to work for the money.
It became obvious for me when I began asking myself what I was really doing waiting for too many a flight at an airport to return home after yet another meaningless business trip. When I would doodle in my office thinking of other activities I would rather be in than stay in a job When I dreaded getting up in the morning and pretending that work was interesting. When I knew many around me were faking it in their quests for better positions and outcomes in the corporate world. I knew for a number of years over that period of time that I needed to do something else rather than being in a job. I was over it. Maybe it would have to be work that I rather enjoy doing, for less money. Maybe I needed to take some time off a regular job. Maybe I would rather not work all together and direct my energies to some other areas of interest. For a number of years, it was a constant struggle of staying in the corporate world and wanting out .....
I guess the test of the pudding is should we know our lives would end in 12 months what would we do differently with the time we have left? The answer would reveal our life priorities.
Then the inevitable happened. The job that I dreaded but provided relative calm and stability to a working man's life; ceased. It's been 15 months since I left that job and a full time employment. Apart from some moments of anxiety related to having to cope with financial commitments I have been much happier as a person on his finite journey .....
I am contemplative. I do not know yet what I want to "do" and "what I will become" but I am more conscious than ever that I am on a life journey and that for once, I can dictate which fork on the road I should go on; and I am allowed to back track if I find I do not want to go on farther than on that track.
I am beginning to realize the power of choice. And that choices define who we are and how we live our lives. Bad and good.
I am more and more hopeful that I shall live life for the next 23 years more fully than I had in the past 23 as a working adult. I do not regret a great deal about the past 23; I am more hopeful I shall not regret having lived it as I sojourn on .....
I guess the significance of the last 15 months for me is that it inspired me to think, and to rethink, every now and then, what exactly is the point of this life. What's worth investing in, putting energy into, cherishing, and re-living again and again? What when we die, would we like to look back on? It is very much a philosophical as well as a realistic mindset.
As in all life journeys I contemplate because I do not have the perfect answers. Yet again I know that for all my wants and needs in the rest of my journey I would be bright-eyed and unafraid of changes that would come my way.....
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