“I’ll be expecting your poem tomorrow, ok?”, my friend said to me as we left the room for the night. This was a big night for him: he is going to be married tomorrow.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, the best man at the wedding wasn’t able to attend. A week prior to this night, the groom messaged me and said he wanted me to become the best man instead. It was an honor, and of course I obliged.
If there is one recognizable aphorism on how we should live our days to the fullest, it would be carpe diem. This is famously known to mean “seize the day”, but it is actually mistranslated. Its true meaning is closer to “gather while the day is ripe”.
This year has been hard for many of us. The pandemic brought widespread disruption in people’s lives by losing loved ones, layoffs, closed businesses, and isolation. Our family was not spared as well. This year I lost my sister to cancer. Several uncles and relatives passed away. This led me to think about the shortness of this life. Was gathering while the day is ripe enough? How can I even know if the day is ripe or not?
My sister passed away on February 24 after almost three years of her battle with cancer. She courageously persisted, and fought till the end.
Seneca the Younger (4 BC – AD 65) was one of the great Stoic writers. A Roman senator, he was exiled in AD 41 as he went against the reigning emperor. He wrote To mother Helvia, On consolationwhile on exile to provide comfort to his mother.
There’s some belief that age and years ending in 9 often result in some significant change in people’s lives. I would say that in general, this rang true for the year 2019 when we look at local and global events.
This is also true for me on a personal level. 2019 brought some hard new lessons for me to learn and I will share the top 5 major lessons here:
One day I was listening to a podcast where the host interviews a businessman. At the end of the interview the host asked, “What are the things you do that make you successful?“. The businessman answered: “The reason I am successful is not because of what I do today. I owe everything to 2011 me. All his hard work, his grit, and his networking efforts paid off.“
That got me thinking: am I thankful for past me? Do my actions decades ago produce something good today?