We all try to live life as if tomorrow does not exist.  Is it good or bad ?  I do not know.  Sometimes, I feel that life should be enjoyed everyday as if tomorrow does not exist.  But, at other times I feel bad that we are in such a hurry that we do not have time to sit and reflect on life every day.  Its a dilemma for me and may be true for you too.

We are aware that time does not stand still for us.  It does move on irrespective of whether we want it or not.  But to lead a life as if we are about to miss a train is in our hands.  Nothing stops us from getting up early and admiring the sunrise.  There can no melody, which is sweeter than the chirping of birds at dawn.  The formation of the clouds, the chillness in the air are for us to sit back and enjoy.

What do we do in real life ?  We get up late and sometimes are willing to sacrifice our breakfast since we may miss our bus or train to work.  Then we have a busy day at work and put ourselves on stress as if the whole office only depends on us.  We rush back home to beat the traffic on the way.  The pollution around us makes us tired and house hold chores leaves no time for us to relax and enjoy.  We skip the evening walk on the pretext of being exhausted at work.

Life goes on this way.  We do not plan a holiday with family or friends.  We think if we take a holiday we may lose our competitiveness at work.  The belief that employees who do not take leave are valued more than others is our own making.  After all these sacrifices, when we do not get a promotion on time or get an increment less than what we expected, we are stressed.  This adds to our health issues and we are physically and psychologically strained in life.

We postpone our holidays to be recognised at work and also to help our children be successful in school and college.  By the time, the kids grow up, we grow in our career and believe that we have to lead by example in not taking leave and working 24 x 7, 365 days a year.  I sometimes wonder what motivates us to believe that we are being the right role model for the younger generation following us.

We have given up our hobbies, the games we enjoyed playing and even listening to music or admiring nature.  Life passes on at such a speed that we do not have time to even realise what we are missing.  Then we have responsibilities of the family and friends to shoulder.  As we grow older, we want to give back to society as we have benefited a lot from it.  This is a noble thought but again does not tell us not to relax and enjoy life every day.

By the time we realise that we need to sit back, relax and enjoy life, we develop health issues since we have never bothered to take care of own health.  We spend more time visiting doctors and gulping medicines.  We still do not get into a habit of daily exercise and healthy food.  We believe we can make up for the same in the future. By the time the future arrives, it is time to hang up our boots and prepare for retirement.

Now is time we realise that life could be slower and wish we had the time to rewind and relax.  It may not be late even today.  Let us spend a few moments to reflect on our own lives.  Are we racing against time or can we learn to live life the way we want to.

Let us give life a chance.

S Ramesh Shankar