Sunday, August 11, 2013

Pondering The Five Ws in Our Lives



When someone close to us dies it is a time of great sadness as well as great opportunity. It is important to grieve the loss of a loved one and it is equally important to take the opportunity provided to review what is important in our own lives.

There is a tendency to kind of sleep walk through life, just surviving every day, working to get by, finding all kinds of distractions from feelings of emptiness and discomfort; simply living to exist always putting off those things that we really want to do ‘someday’.

Life is a beautiful and fragile thing however and it waits for no one. We do not know how long we have here nor do we know what the state of our health will be ‘someday’. Too often we put off even thinking about what is important to us or if we do we tend to relegate it to that murky some day that for some reason never seems to come. Even if it does, it is often very short lived, that life of our dreams because we put it off for so long.

Now is a good time to ponder and consider some of life’s big questions which we could look at from the perspective of a news reporter’s five w’s.

Who – Who do I want to be in relation to the people I care about? In relation to my work?  In relation to what I believe about life?  Is who I am being right now the person I envisioned I would be; if not, what is one thing I can do to change that?

What – What is most important to me in terms of what I want to contribute, how I want to express myself, what I want to experience at this time in my life? Am I living true to myself or have I sold my dreams for the illusion of security?

Where – Where do I want to spend my precious time? Where have I always dreamed of being? Am I there or at least taking steps to get there?  Or do I keep putting it off for some unknown time in an unknown future?

When – When am I going to take the step I know I need to take to move me closer to that life I’ve always dreamed of? When is it a good time to say yes to Life?  When am I going to stop putting off what I can actually do today?

Why – Why am I doing what I am doing with my life? Is it what I really want or am I living by default? Am I wasting my precious time asking questions like why is this happening to me or why can’t I have what I really want? If so, why not shift into questions like how can I live the life I know is in me now?

When we take the time to ask ourselves the important questions in life we are far more likely to experience more of what we want than when we spend our time looking for excuses or distractions.

Why waste another precious moment in regret or worry or want when we can be living right now in wonder and appreciation? 

Namaste

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