Something of Real Value

byJoyLamod

270 followers

5 years ago

Grateful for the 33 years of my existence —

Before this special day of mine ends [Yes, it is my birthday today!😊], allow me to share with you my joy after taking some time reflecting on how life has been so good and generous to me.

It is always good to stop and look back to how our life has been and where all our choices in the past brought us. As Socrates said, "An unexamined life is not worth living", so I must say, "In this wonderful journey we call LIFE, when we fixed our eyes to our goal alone without paying attention to the road, we run the danger of losing the real value of the journey itself.

The truth is, the road will always be our best teacher. It will teach us everything we need to know to reach our destination. It will change and transform us so we can be ready to receive the ultimate treasure awaiting us.

I am happy to stop and look back to my 33 years walking this road. There are mistakes but no regret. I may not know everything but I learned a lot of things that enriched my life. These lessons changed and formed me to be more open to life, to take risks, to value what truly matters and to simply enjoy life.

[Special note: You have the right to disagree with me.]

Life is truly a gift but very few actually believe it.

Once we realize that nothing in this life is permanent, everything, no matter how big or small it is, would be a gift. We tend to equate the value of our life based on what we have accomplished by working so hard. We end up accumulating too much and exhausting ourselves to secure a life in the future.

Man worked tirelessly only to get sick and died without enjoying the fruits of all his labors. In his deathbed, he realized that money cannot buy certain things in life like our very own breath, peaceful sleep, the love of family and friends around us and the joy of touching other people’s life.

This is not to insinuate that working so hard and striving for a prosperous life are bad. It is just to remind ourselves that we are not born to just work and accumulate riches on earth. We are created for something greater than work, money or even title.

We do not have the luxury of time.

I assume everybody knows that we are not immortal yet we tend to believe that we still have a lot of time ahead of us to do what we truly wanted in life. I often hear people say, “I love singing and my ultimate dream is to have my own music recording." "What truly makes me happy is to paint." "I would be very happy engaging in mission work for the abandoned, elderly people."

Then the discussion ends with statements like, "Will do that later, maybe after securing a better future for my kids.” "It is not possible now, maybe after my retirement." The problem is, we do not even know if we still have tomorrow to see our kids' graduation or enjoy the fruits of our retirement.This is a very realistic struggle.

Life is both a journey within and an outward pilgrimage.

I believe that God has created each one of us with a particular purpose in mind. And since there is a purpose, all the features, skills, potentials and strengths we have are meant to be used in fulfilling that purpose.

So there is no way that life would asks us to let go or abandoned what we are so passionate about in order to make a living or fulfilled our responsibilities in life.
If that is the case, we might be missing something very significant as we choose the path we are taking right now.

I only have two criteria in choosing a path to take: Is this path capable of bringing out the best of who I can be? Will it give me the means to be a good neighbor to others?

The first one entails loving myself and the second one is about extending that same love to others.
Life is beautiful when we know how to see that beauty within us and in those people around us.