Lies we truthfully tell.

When it happens, you will perhaps be oblivious that it is happening or maybe, you will know that is it happening but, you will be quick to deny it. You will perhaps be with loved ones or alone and scared but whichever method it elects, you will most definitely be unprepared and unwilling. You will hope that it will be quick and painless and that many people will be touched by your life. Certainly, you will hope that it will be a tragic loss for the whole world. Death is inevitable!One day we will all die and our desire is that our death will mean something and hopefully, we will not suffer through it.

As the we reflects about the new year and set our ambitions high, I intentionally chose to be morbid and say what nobody is willing to say or at the very least think about. The preacher in the bus has said it until his voice has cracked into an irreversible hoarseness.The lord is returning soon! He sounds delusional and suspicious since after all, he is making passenger wary of the begging that will follow in the name of the lord. We are a generation that believes only what our bare eyes can behold and gone are the days when the fear of the lord’s return would influence our choices. This article is not meant to persuade you to accept that the lord is coming or that you will atone for your sins. My intention is to lay down an undeniable reality that all the goals we set are hinged on death. Without death there is no time and without time there are no goals.

Life is the most truthfully told lie. We convince ourselves that we are entitled to life and that we have tomorrow and forever to rectify the errors of our ways. We assume that forever is a long time and in that forever we will make a difference. We set lofty goals and are unwilling to suffer for them now, since tomorrow we will be more prepared and the circumstances will be better. One of my favorite quotes from Tich Naht Hahn in his book The Art of Living is that “ everything that a person craves, becomes the cause of his suffering”. If you want a car, you will suffer for it, if you want a good job you are surely going to suffer for it. As long as you desire it, you cannot escape suffering for it.

To my mind, goals therefore are just but statements of things we are willing to suffer for. This perspective offers us an opportunity to ask the raw question whether whatever we have committed to do this year (at the risk of death giving us an untimely slap between our entitled faces) is truly worth suffering for?

In the movie Marco Polo: One hundred Eyes, Kublai Khan is protected by a blind warrior who has committed his life to the Khan. He lays his life on the line for his cause and in a conversation with Marco Polo, he is asked why he is not afraid of death.His response is that he is afraid of death, but he does not cling to life. Since I heard this words in 2015, they have stuck with me and are my day to day rallying call. The fear of death is natural and no man can master it. This fear is a gift to man, it keeps societies safe and civil for even the criminal doesn’t like losing his life. Death is therefore not man’s greatest undoing. Man’s ultimate kryptonite is clinging to life.

When we cling to life, we become entitled. We fail to take the opportunities we have today and instead wait for those that will come tomorrow. We fail to prioritize our children by being present for them but instead throw money at them with the hope that tomorrow we will be more present to create invaluable memories with them. We procrastinate, we do what is convenient and most unfortunately we tell ourselves many lies, so much that we eventually believe in them. In contrast, the fear of death helps us appreciate that our lives are not our own and that our actions are our only true possession.

Choose to live your life in the present moment with mindfulness and the acceptance that everything in life (including yourself) is changing and there is no escaping this change. Tell your those who are in your life that you love them, don’t go to bed upset, forgive before you are ready to and most importantly chose wisely what you are wiling to suffer for. As the year begins, welcome the thought that you are not owed a good life. You deserve the life you have and therefore you must make the best out of it. Your progress is a factor of the decisions you take now. Commit to do things that you can now since you are on borrowed time. Don’t cling on to life for the only true possession you have is the present moment. You cannot lose tomorrow neither can you get back yesterday. Live in the here and now and ultimately I hope that this year you choose goals that reflect this reality.

Yours Eddy.