One of the greatest mistakes that we humans make in this world is to think that we have a lot of time here. When we are young and newly arrived into this reality, the minutes can seem to take an eternity to pass. Each day seems to last forever as we explore the majesty of the creation that surrounds us. As we grow older and more accustomed to operating in our surroundings, our perception of time begins to speed up. We stop paying attention to the little stuff and life becomes a routine. Once we reach middle age, we enter hyper-speed and each year passes faster and faster than the one that preceded it. Before we know it the ride is almost over. The years don't actually shorten of course, we are still on the same giant rock spinning around at over a thousand miles per hour, hurtling through space around a giant fireball at just under nineteen miles a second. That has not changed. What is changing is our perception of our days and our nights. The moments cease to have the same weight they used to.
We wake up each morning and live each day in many different ways, some days are good days and some days are bad; but we never consider that this might our last day. How many times a day do we wish time would go by faster? Trapped in some uncomfortable situation we yearn for the moments to slip by rapidly as we gaze toward an unknown future, never appreciating that we will not get these fleeting moments back. Once the grain of sand has slipped through the hourglass there is no returning. There is no guarantee that we will wake up tomorrow morning, no guarantee we will make it to watch today's sunset. We could depart this realm in five minutes, or live here another another fifty years. There are no guarantees, except that time stops for no one and Death catches everyone. It is the universal tax that we all must pay our creator.
We all know on some sort of intellectual level that one day we will die, but very few of us truly understand it in our bones that Death could come for us at any moment. There is no escaping it. Death finds both peasants and emperors, we are all equal when it comes to Death. For what good are riches and power when they can no longer buy you another breath of life? Full acceptance and understanding that one day the sun will rise without you is a difficult concept for the mind and heart to accept. So we push away the thought of Death as a curse that is always "out there" off in some far away future, instead of seeing it as an active participant in life. Some circumstances are impossible to change, yet our attitude towards those circumstances is easily changed.
When we cease viewing Death always as a far off curse, and instead began to accept its inevitable intrusion as our greatest challenge, one that can overcome us at any moment; our appreciation of time would increase. We would soon realize that all of our petty routines are not quite as important as we thought they were. Thus, our behavior begins to change, slowly at first and then faster and faster, our actions would become more authentic. As more and more people adopted an honorable way of life, our communities would improve, our cities would begin to heal, and our world would become more magical. Each action and decision would have increasingly more weight and meaning behind it, knowing full well that it could be your last on Earth. Losing sight of this understanding has been one of our great mistakes and has led to what has gone so wrong in our world. If people had a real understanding of the nature the reality and that any second their experience here will end, that we are all equal on a fundamental level; they would be more conscious of their personal actions. I don't mean personal safety or the legal dispensation of personal affairs. It is much more serious than that and impacts daily life on a much greater scale. When you are no longer guaranteed time to atone for your mistakes, you are more careful in your words and deeds. The stakes are raised, every minute we are playing for keeps, we cannot take anything back. Our decisions are seen as final and there is no way back.
Under such a way of being we would subtly become detached from the petty problems we all face each day, our thinking would become focused on what truly matters to each one of us. Honorable living would arise, secure in our knowing that repentance at a later date would be impossible, we would live each moment in the present. Even the bitter moments would become a joy to us, as we would come to understand that even these moments are precious and short lived. We should cherish each joy and heartache. Do not bemoan the challenges set before you. Whether of humble means or princely robes, at the moment of our death, the only thing of worth is the record of how we lived our life. That final knowledge that each moment of life was spent consciously and appreciated fully for its unique experience. Knowing that we learned from our mistakes and were the best that we possibly could be in any situation is all we can ask for. In such a way of living we would cease to view our life as a never ending series of blessings and curses, but see each day as a living challenge. A means of sharpening our will and our consciousness in the fiery crucible of life; as we prepare for the next great adventure in the galactic symphony of creation.
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