Thoughts on Mortality and Making Every Day Meaningful

Recently, a friend who is near and dear to me was just diagnosed with cancer. I am terribly sad about this and it’s made me realize that I have been taking my health and the health of all those around me for granted.

I’m hoping and praying that the cancer was caught early enough so that my friend will ultimately just require an operation and/or treatment and emerge from this whole ordeal drained, but well. However, for the moment, this is actually unknown as the details and extent are still being investigated by the specialists.

Many people/blogs convey the wisdom that one needs to live life in the present to the fullest extent possible so as to make the most of our time. This is probably because:

Life is precious and we do not know how long we have to enjoy; life, death and illness can be so random

Many of us would like to feel happy and live as joyfully as possible

I think that many of us would like to make our lives as meaningful as possible and minimize the inconsequential. However, sometimes it is only when we are threatened with the illness or loss of someone close to us, that we realize that we really must take action for this change to occur.

In that regard, there can be a silver lining in someone’s illness or loss; you can decide to step back and look at how you have been living your life and make a change if you feel that such a change is warranted.

Have you been living your life in as meaningful a way as you wanted? Have you been spending the time you wanted with the people you care about the most? Have you found a way to balance work and your personal life?

I often find that life/work/school gets in the way of having a balanced life, so to speak. This is one of the reasons I tend to read a lot of inspirational and/or balance type blogs. I’m searching for the answer!

What are your thoughts on this matter?

Photo credit: Mckay Savage