On Mortality
An accumulation of events through life, with memories both great and awful, and yet such an uncertain future to worry about. The burden of striking the balance between where we are coming from and where we are headed to weighing upon our shoulders. We cannot take shield in the past for many are the things we cannot resolve, and we cannot help but helplessly anticipate the future, which is in itself like a stranger whose intentions we are not sure about.
There is a lot of noise in the current moment, punctuated by very few intersections of silence to reflect upon the journey. They paint the picture for us, and we aim for that very perfection. We all want to be picture perfect, but here we all stand: flawed. The norms, dictated by both the society and religion, become less hard to avoid breaking by the day.
There is a lot to want, there is a lot we need, but the search for sanity is a common struggle. We are all looking for the way home. Yet somehow we end up stuck in a maze as though we found some answers but still have questions we need to be answered. Life seemed more defined in the past, as children, when we held no pain in our hearts and our garments of innocence were untainted.
We have, however, seen too much, heard too much and done too much. The moments between our childhood and adulthood are shadowed by events and moments we would rather not reflect upon. And yet we stand, vainly attempting to build the ladders from the pits of that ugly past to the seemingly unattainable perfect present moment. We try, in every way to make a moment here or there, but we miss the mark, and not many are brave enough to give it another shot.
For some, it is never the same. Some things cannot be unseen, unheard or ‘unfelt’. The heart changes, so do the mind and the body. We then seek to drown our sorrows in quick fixes that end up being the cheap poisons. We seek to love, for instance, just in a bid to fill the void. We do not want to be lonely, no! We cannot stay in that empty room. Sooner or later we realize that the pain we undergo by signing up for that love is equivalent to the pain we undergo when we stay away from love. If the past is not dealt with, we sooner or later learn that hard lesson.
Then there is indulgence, and debauchery in all its relative degrees. This fix is perhaps the most perilous one of them all in the way it builds one and breaks ten. The fix that solves problems and creates many more. The fix that sets you free in one level and gets you imprisoned in several others.
…The charade, the noise, and the real picture of the state of our lives. The truth about the current moment that we ignore, and the Pandora’s Box we’d rather never open…
Amidst all that life has become, we cannot help but reckon that there is a higher being, and we are only the lesser beings. We are in a way or another caught up in going through the motions to the extent that we forget to pause and make peace with the supreme power, whomever we perceive Him to be. We subconsciously evade conscious living, and living that calls for us to recognize that spirituality is a facet of our being that we cannot simply cut off. We fail to make deliberate choices until we are pinned down by the ceaseless and tormenting crises. Financial crises, mid-life crisis, political crises just to name but a few. In the face of the never-ending trials, we stand as mortals; mere mortals for that fact.
At times mortality, as many have agreed, is one of the greatest gifts that the supreme creator granted to us all. How would a thousand years of suffering auger with most? Mortality is that portal to a haven that offers those who get to it the moment (or an eternity) to live free of pain and suffering. Mortality is not victorious to those who bear the burden of the departed loved ones. It, however, presents a wake-up call to everyone that we are not here for ten thousand years, and that every moment alive should be spent doing something we may not be in a position to do when we are gone. No one knows what lies on the other side of life, but we have a few lessons on how to make the best out of the gift of life entrusted to us.
We know not the day, we know not the hour, but we this should not be a reason for us to forget that the day and the hour surely exist.
