On a recent trip down the rabbit hole (while searching for something on the net), I came across something that I felt like sharing with you all today.
Because we don’t know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. And yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, an afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you can’t even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four, or five times more? Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless…
This is an epitaph written on Brandon Lee’s tombstone. For those who don’t know him (I confess, I didn’t at the time), he was an actor, and the son of the legendary Bruce Lee. And unfortunately, he died at a very young age of 28.
And to give credit where it’s due, the above epitaph is actually paraphrased from a 1949 novel ‘The Sheltering Sky’ written by Paul Bowles.
The reason why I wanted to share this is because I found something really heartfelt about this quote. It just makes you pause and think about things, doesn’t it?
How many times do we really see the full Moon rise? When was the last time that you saw it? How many times do we share conversations and laughter with our loved ones? How many memories do we have that we cherish beyond anything?
The numbers may vary for different people, but one thing I think would be common for us all, is that we never think about how many more times we will get to experience those beautiful moments again. We just take these things for granted.
We are so used to certain things that we never fully realize how precious they are. We have such fragile and ephemeral lives. Anything can happen anytime. Yet, it’s like we are blind to the whole thing.
Now I do understand that there’s a practical aspect to the whole thing, and that we wouldn’t be able to function properly if we kept thinking about the impermanence of it all. I agree that we do need to focus on the present moment, and not worry about what might happen in the future, which we can not control beyond a certain limit.
But that should happen as a conscious choice, isn’t it? Not because we don’t realize the nature of these things, and are just living unconsciously, tumbling from one day to another. We must remain aware of how limited our days are. Because only then can we truly, deeply appreciate things like those wonderful memories, beautiful Moon rises, the laughter of loved ones, etc.
We get so caught up in our lives, postponing our plans for that vacation, for that conversation, for that reconciliation, for that thing that we always wanted to do, that we never stop to think what if there isn’t enough time to do those things later?
Experience what you can while you can. Go see the Moon rise!
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Pic Credits: brandonlee.com
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