Does a thought ever catch you off guard? At some point today, I am not sure if it was in the moment between sleep and awake during my mid-morning nap or when, but it suddenly struck me that life is mostly about want and very little about need. I stopped to think about what in life I need. Why do I need new lungs? Now stay with me on this, I need new lungs because my old ones are reaching their end and without them I cease to exist. That need is understood, but why do I need new ones? I don't! I want new ones, as simple as that. I thought about what I would need new lungs for and I realized that there is nothing in life that I feel I need to accomplish, or finish, or discover, or visit. I just want new lungs to enjoy life, enjoy things like watching Josie get married, or Cooper graduate college, or Grae discover her path in life, or Kai play baseball in high school, those are the things I want.
But the further I think on this I realize life is really just full of wants, realizing we need thing like water, food, and shelter is obvious but everything beyond that is things we have created a need. We have confused need and want. We put an emphasis on vacations, money, house sizes, car, or prestige but I am not sure it really means anything. Guess it depends on your frame of reference, but life is just about the experience and when it's over, whether you believe in heaven or not all those things you did or saw don't really matter.
Now given we all are existing here on this earth and to sit in a corner doesn't do us much good, and so we each follow a path that brings us our life and how it is played out. Rich or poor, it is our life and we really have to be somewhere doing something. But in the end it won't really matter if you were the CEO from JCpenney or the maintenance man, your lives means exactly the same and all you can do is find happiness in what you have.
In the end I don't need new lungs, since I could just let nature takes its course, but I want new lungs. I want to exist here in a way I haven't as an adult. I look forward to things of the future but my life has been pretty whole to this point, I am content with whatever life brings.
God bless you and your life journey.
I thought I was the one who went to school for philosophy. Brilliant thoughts, and and very zen. Congrats! You, my dear sister, have just had a moment of enlightenment. Thank you for sharing, Bodhisattva Saran.
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