Fulfillment

During a casual conversation with a good friend today over what matters in life he shared with me something his uncle wrote down for him as a summary of life. My friend mentioned that his uncle had made a statement that at the far end of life we may lose even memory besides other things.

As I was ruminating on our conversation later in the day while cooking dinner some thoughts came to my mind. I wrote to him the following:

“As your mama rightly said, in the end even memory can’t be relied on. It may or may not stay with us till the last breath.

But here’s what I think. The present moment when we are literally at the peak of this life’s journey, when the physical and mental faculties are quite intact, financial stability has come, career has been served for its large part, we are fortified by the experience of the years, we have our family together and at least one parent still with us, we should make time each day to simply acknowledge this completeness, experience the sense of fulfillment with full conscious attention and just doing that will stamp a memory in the brain. 

Why is it important?

Because now everything is going to go downhill from here. That’s just the way of life. Every rising sun must set. 

Before the mind starts to complain about the achy joints or heart issues or leaky bladder or failing memory or family /social issues, it is important to have this handy memory to refute the mind for it’s unreasonable complaints. Let it bask in the good memories of what life gave us rather than what it is taking back from us. 

If it is written in our future that even memory will be taken away, it’s ok. But if we are lucky to have it as our companion until the very end then nothing like it. We will die rich just looking back at life.”

————————————————————————

Life happens while we are looking elsewhere. And we forget how good it was. Until it ceases to be that good. 

I am sharing this private conversation here because, who knows, it may possibly help someone. They may take a moment to appreciate life.