We live so we can make our heavens

Everyone desires the good life: a life where ease is each day's theme. So, what do we do to get the good life? We work hard, and it’s easy to say the words “work hard,” but acting on those words is where difficulty resides. Yet we want the good life—to make our heavens while we live.

A curious mind will ask, “But heaven already exists, so why do you strive in this fleeting and fragile life when you’ve been assured of eternity?”

It is simple; we are like ants. We exist to yield fruit from our environment. Hence, we possess tunnel vision; we are working on the life we have now despite the promise of heaven, or perhaps some rational part of our minds doubts this promise.

However, we are intellectual beings, so we challenge our tunnel vision; maybe philosophy was the first attempt to challenge this vision. Descartes pondered his existence and wondered if he was merely a cog in a programmed world. Alas, he found his truth because he chose to believe his thoughts gave credence to his reality. Thus, we often question why we work hard, why good things aren’t handed out easily, and why rest has to be earned. And at the end of these questions, we continue working hard because we re ants on a mission: to make heaven out of our lives.

Life’s fleeting nature

Life is fragile, life is hard, and life is short. I resonate with the latter because our genes always seek survival. The moment death presents itself, we search for a window—a lifeline. There is a certainty that every one of us wants to live, and the rationality of our being fights against suicide.

Thus, we know life is short, tedious, and fragile; it seems the most rational thing is to make the most of your life while you have it. When the young die, people wail and utter, “There’s so much they didn’t do, see, and experience.” To put it differently, people mourn their unlived lives and the tragedy that they never made their heaven on earth.

The little comfort

It isn’t outrageous to say that we often tend to experience discomfort. In the commonplace sense, it might mean having feelings of unease, which arise in the form of restlessness, unhappiness, dread, grief, and a plethora of emotions. Yet how do you know happiness if you haven’t been sad?

Discomfort and unease remind us of what we strive for: heaven. We know paradise exists because we’ve seen a glimpse of hell. When we feel cold, we miss being warm because we know how it is to be warm. I miss the sun when rain falls throughout the day, and I miss the rain when the sun assaults me. For those who have tasted sugar since the day they were born, they would be born anew the first time they tasted salt.

If you rent out an apartment, ideas spring to your mind about how its appearance would turn out. With small steps, you pick a rug to keep your feet warm, a small lamp to provide light in the darkness, flowers to show life and colour, and adornments to complete your portrait. In time, you realise you’ve made a haven for yourself, where you can hide away from the world, and dream. These little pieces shape up to bring comfort to your space. Hence, we strive for a little comfort because we’ve experienced discomfort.

In people, we find heaven

“The final word is love… To love we must know each other … and we know each other in the breaking of bread, and we are not alone any more. Heaven is a banquet and life is a banquet, too, even with a crust, where there is companionship.

We have all known the long loneliness and learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.” Dorothy Day on the strength and love of community.

There are moments when you forget your problems when you’re in the midst of your community. Now this community could be your friends or your family, but at those moments when you’re in the midst, you forget the outside world, and your strength and hope are renewed.

“What’s heaven if you’re the only one in it? It becomes hell.”

We say, “Home is where the heart is,” because we know solace resides in the place we feel at ease. In other people, we find our home, and in discovering your home, you find heaven. Some of us are lucky because we find ourselves surrounded by those who love us. We never have to stray too far to discover our community. Meanwhile, some people work hard to have any semblance of community. Nonetheless, it takes intentional effort to maintain relationships; heaven won’t build itself, and love won’t arise if it’s not cultivated.

In living, we make our heaven; it is why we work, love, and strive for the good things.

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