Life's bridge

[strawdog65]

With the constant passing of time, and the obvious aging of ourselves,

there is the silent imperative of looking at ones life and judging what

has passed under the bridge of our lives.

 

You can imagine it to be a bridge, or even a hill which you climb

both up to the crest and then slowly back down the other side as well.

 

What is life if not the stuff of challenges faced?

What are the defining moments?

Has this life been one that has been well lived as fully as you have been able to?

Has your life been one of helpfullness or has it been one of blatant

disregard with only the self having any importance?

 

We climb this great hill we call life, and the sights are wondrous

to say the least, but has the journey been satisfying?

 

All challenges we face leave something of value in their wake.

It maybe something small, a subtle change in our self outlook,

a new perspective, or less fear of the unknown awaiting us in the

void ahead, who knows. Our lives are about the challenges we

muster ourselves to face, they are about how we accept and live

within the boundries that define our nature as the Human Being

we exist as in this life.

 

I can look at my own future and know that the time ahead is

most surely shorter than the time that has passed beneath my own

bridge of life. I imagine it to be a beautiful red/oriental style bridge

with a beautiful landscape of gardens surrounding me.

 

Beneath my bridge there is crystal clear water, a stream slowly flows

over varying sized rocks. There are fish lulling about, they seem ill

concerned by my own consternation of an uncertain future. I stand on my

bridge of life, gazing all about and being in awe of the majesty of the moment.

 

I know that with every passing year as I approach the other side of

my own bridge, that my fascination with the smaller things in this

life increases.

 

Those things of subtlety, those things we take for granted because they pass

so quietly in the fuss we create. The change of seasons, the leaves turning color,

the change in the light as we progress towards the equinoxes, the comming again

of the warmth and the renewal of green things growing everywhere.

 

All those little things, as important and meaningful as the slight hint of a smile

on the lips of the love of your life. Or the smile within her eyes twinkling just for

you and unnoticed by anyone else. The little things, those things that are the smallest

fragments of joy, that together make your heart sing.

 

All the subtleties that we tell ourselves we are not a part of. Our lives are one

continuous progression of seasons within ourselves. We are like the new growth,

beautiful and green and moist and suculent in youth, becoming dryer more brittle

and losing our color as we make our way back to the dust of our beginnings.

 

This is not something to be fearfull of. It is the completion of the cycle. It is the

end result of any life fully lived, and should be a great inspiration for using the

time we have and the youthfullness we feel every moment we spend in this life to

constantly be the best we are able, and give of ourselves to help others feel the same.

 

We are, and shall always be, part of the great unending cycle, we are part of

the whole of this being, and in the end we are welcomed back to the infinite

Source to become part of the very same whole we spend our whole lives

wishing we had never parted from to begin with.

 

 

Peace!

[Marblehead]

Interesting.

 

I am at a point in my life where I really don't look back all that much.

 

I guess about ten years ago I was still at the point that you are talking about.

 

I guess that I have this thought that now and for the rest of my life what happened in the past to cause me to be what I am today just doesn't matter anymore. Sure, there are the memories. Most good ones but true, some not-so-good ones.

 

No time now to change anything. Just time to enjoy what I have now.

[strawdog65]

It's not about remorse or feeling old.

It's about grabbing hold of your life while you still have it,

and unabashedly enjoying every moment like never before.

 

When we are young, we are plagued by the thought that we have so

much time ahead of us that we sometimes do nothing in the moment.

I can recall times in my own youth when I did not act because I had

the false Idea that there was plenty of time to do that thing or that it

would come again, so no bother. This is sad to me. The idea of holding

yourself back from doing something because of the wrong Idea.

 

The illusion of having plenty of time.

 

All of our time is important.

 

All of the moments we spent thinking we will have another chance

to do something at a later time, wasted moments. Especially if we

really wanted to do something and did not.

 

I hold back on saying it is regret. I think of it more as the ignorance

of being young. It is a irony of life that as we gain wisdom in life

with age, we realize moments that have passed were opportunities,

some of which will never be realized because they are forever past.

 

If you have a moment where you want to do something and hear yourself

thinking, "I can do that some other time", or "there will be other times and

opportunities, I'm too busy right now".

 

Stop what you are doing.

 

And realize you are making a choice to leave a moment behind that could

be a wonderful, amazing experience... that may never come again.

 

All of the moments of our lives are meaningful, but we have to choose

to be fully present in them, and accept the moment fully for all that it is.

Then contentment is realized.

 

Seize your moments, they are individualy and most ecstatically.... Yours!

[pennyofheaven]

Yes, because now is all we have.