TAKE HOLD OF EVERY MOMENT


A friend of mine opened his wife's underwear drawer and picked up a
silk paper wrapped package:

"This, - he said - isn't any ordinary package."
He unwrapped the box and stared at both the silk paper and the box.

"She got this the first time we went to New York, 8 or 9 years ago.
She has never put it on. Was saving it for a special occasion.
Well, I guess this is it. He got near the bed and placed the gift box
next to the other clothings he was taking to the funeral house, his
wife had just died. He turned to me and said:

"Never save something for a special occasion. Every day in your life
is a special occasion".
I still think those words changed my life.
Now I read more and clean less.
I sit on the porch without worrying about anything.
I spend more time with my family, and less at work.
I understood that life should be a source of experience to be lived
up to, not survived through. I no longer keep anything. I use crystal
glasses every day. I'll wear new clothes to go to the supermarket, if
i feel like it.
I don't save my special perfume for special occasions, I use it
whenever I want to. The words "Someday..." and "One Day..." are
fading away from my dictionary. If it's worth seeing, listening or
doing, I want to see, listen or do it now. I don't know what my
friend's wife would have done if she knew she wouldn't be there the
next morning, this nobody can tell. I think she might have called her
relatives and closest friends.
She might call old friends to make peace over past quarrels. I'd like
to think she would go out for Chinese, her favourite food. It's these
small things that I would regret not doing, if I knew my time had
come.
I would regret it, because I would no longer see the friends I would
meet, letters... letters that i wanted to write "One of this days".
I would regret and feel sad, because I didn't say to my brothers and
sons, not times enough at least, how much I love them.
Now, I try not to delay, postpone or keep anything that could bring
laughter and joy into our lives.
And, on each morning, I say to myself that this could be a special
day.
Each day, each hour, each minute, is special.
If you got this, it's because someone cares for you and because,
probably, there's someone you care about.
If you're too busy to send this out to other people and you say to
yourself that you will send it "One of these days", remember
that "One day" is far away... or might never come...

Largely agree, Harkoliar. We really need to learn to appreciate the here and now more, and concern ourselves a bit less with a future which for all we know may never come.

Unfortunately, though, while all this sounds great in theory, in practice I suffer from an all-consuming obsession with developing the ultimate male figure :D ... Just can't put it down -- I keep hankering after this ideal, future me... Why can't I just accept what I am right now and be at peace with it? [img]graemlins/awcrap.gif[/img]

[ 07-28-2002, 10:28 AM: Message edited by: K T Ong ]

"Every moment of our life belongs to the present only for a moment; then it belongs forever to the past. Every evening we are poorer by a day. We would prehaps grow frantic at the sight of this ebbing away of our short span of time were we not secretly concious in the profoundest depthsof our being that we share in the inexhaustable well of eternity, out of which we can forever draw new life and renewed time.

You could, to be sure, base on considerations of this kind a theory that the greatest wisdom consists in enjoying the present and making this enjoyment the goal of life, because the present is all that is real, and everything else imaginary. But you could just as well call this mode of life the greatest folly: for that which in a moment ceases to exist, which vanishes as completely as a dream, cannot be worth any serious effort."

--Schopenhaur, on "The Vanity of Existence"

Something that seemed to relate to the current topic. ;)

EDIT: For some very poor spelling. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[ 07-28-2002, 12:16 PM: Message edited by: Jerome ]

Like it, Jerome. [img]smile.gif[/img] It's incidentally interesting to note that Schopenhauer was strongly influenced by Buddhism, which taught the same thing.

Still hanker after the ideal, future me, though...

Some people might say that you're a friendly, polite and intelligent person here, and most probably in RL too. How muc more self improving you really need is debateable. [img]smile.gif[/img] ;)

[ 07-29-2002, 05:53 AM: Message edited by: Jerome ]

Gosh, talk about flattery, Jerome... [img]graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

As I see it, there's always room for further improvement. Though it nevertheless becomes problematic when one becomes so taken up with such improvement that one forgets to take time to smell the flowers. ;)

I don't flatter, I just articulate what I see. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Sometimes you've got to reach a point where you're happy with yourself. [img]smile.gif[/img] And like you said: stopping to notice the best things in life is very important.

I fully believe in living my life as if each day were my last. If an opportunity to have fun comes up, I'll take it, regardless of whether I could really do with an early night or housework needs doing (only housework I make sure I do is ironing my shirts or shining my boots, gotta look sharp ;) ).

I do the things I like to do whenever I can. Drink champagne just for the hell of it, not just for celebrations. Eat icecream even if the weather is cold. Go dancing whenever I can.

A good friend of mine died last week. I just found out last Friday, he had a sudden heart attack and died instantly. He was 40. Life is short, live it while you can.

Sorry to hear that, Epona...

It's true, life is short, to be lived fully while you can.