040. Living Is Suffering
Living is suffering.
Now, that's a phrase I have been privileged not to say for some time now. There are many instances that come to mind when I think to reference or, paint a picture to illustrate what I mean.
Recently, when catching up with a friend, who I love deeply but only speak to a full of times in year, she told me she had been unwell. With the spacing of our interactions, I found it quite concerning because it seemed as though every time we had the opportunity of speaking, there was something that ailed her. To me, it felt like she was going through life with no moment of rest. From long COVID, to the flu, then weakness, the list simply felt endless. As we barely communicate, I had to imagine that surely, there were moments when her life didn't play an endless reel of suffering.
If we time it right, the life can either be filled with joy, pain, misery or pure mundanity.
Today, on a walk with my mother, we spoke about final chances. The idea that after long periods of ailment, people often speak about all the to-dos they will get to if they were granted the opportunity to recover from their sickness. She found it peculiar that people come up with these long lists of things to do, and couldn't understand how people could allow themselves to live in such a way that a threat on their lives would make them value the opportunities of life's abundance. I thought it odd that this is how she perceived the idea but, when I spoke, I only found myself repeating excuses.
Perhaps it's modern medicine or fast cars or perhaps, grocery stores but, for some reason, many of us have grown comfortable in delaying living our lives. We spend our lives constantly shelving adventure and exploration as something we will make time for somewhere along the way. Whether it is convincing ourselves that we will make time for the gym when the new year rolls round, or we will finally take a vacation when we get our promotion, or, go for a walk after the next episode, there is always a reason we find to justify why we don't move. Often, the situations we hold ourselves in, do not carry the value we know we stand to gain from achieving one of our to-dos.
A quick google search will tell you that 1 in 3 of us will likely be diagnosed with a terminal illness and, 1 in 5 will be killed by said illness. I would have imagined it to be much lower, and I suppose that’s hope but, for much of history, a good percentage of us were not making it past the age of 5. I imagine if you were one of the few to survive infancy, you knew that life did not come to all. Perhaps, there was more value offered to life back then.
Today, we know that a few spoons of cold medicine and some good rest will take away a measly cold. We do not worry about how much time we can spend with our friends and family because, we know they are only a short drive away. With money in your pocket, you needn't worry about starvation because your local grocer will keep you fed. To achieve all this, we give away our long lives to sit behind desks and argue that one day, we will do it all.
Though medicine can ease our pain, it doesn't take away the suffering. It doesn't take away the days you spend lying in bed wishing you could be anywhere but. In those moments, when our suffering is at the forefront, we are reminded of our own mortality. For that, I am grateful.
Long or short, our existence has one end. Like a terminal illness, life will take us all.
If you spend your days shelving your aspirations, be grateful for the cold, be grateful for the hurt leg, be grateful for the pain, for without it, the joys of life that follow, you would simply overlook.
Yes, life is long, but remember, from the moment we are born, we have begun decaying; so, do not let your life be spent postponing living, because, life is short. We are here today, then gone tomorrow.
To life is to suffer, a terminal illness awarded at birth. Do not wait for your diagnosis to let your life be lived.
Ummm, I thought that would get cheery somewhere along the way but, I guess with an opening line like 'living is suffering', it was bound to boarder on dark just a tad. Alas, don't let that be your end. The weekend is upon us, an opportunity to find enjoyment in the mundanity of our one precious existence.
My dear reader, I hope you have the most pleasant weekend. Be it calm, be it thrilling, I hope it well.
It has been an interesting week. Week 8? Crazy! I have done my best and I am glad I've been able to follow through. So, I hope to see you fresh and ready on Monday as we continue to do all we can to cherish this one wild and precious life.
