Five-year plans, ten-year plans, fifteen-year plans; what a prepared race we are and what a fallacy the first half of this sentence signifies. We spend our lives preparing, planning and striving to achieve those plans. But how many of us are prepared with our one-day plan? How many of us even acknowledge its significance in our lives?
The one-day plan is the plan that exists in realisation that our mortality is closer than we think… in some cases she may even be tapping our shoulder!
The phrase ‘Live each day like it was your last’ takes on new meaning today. It’s not telling us to get hammered one last time, or go pub-hopping and everything else that consumerism and the fast-forward life has on offer.
It’s telling us to slow-down considerably and take a good close look at the very real possibility of our own mortality. We need to ask ourselves one seemingly simple question: “How would I live my life if today was my last day on earth?” The answer is universal because the answer begins and continues with ‘love’. (I say continues because love is never-ending; it changes but it’s always there, transcending time and space, geography and culture, situations and characteristics.) If today was my last day, I’d like to live it with love; love for the Almighty, love for the universe, love for nature, love for people… love for everyone and everything.
I’d tell all the people I love that I love them (spiritually to the one's I can't tell in person), hug my parents for longer than I usually do, talk to my brother and sister-in-law just a little longer, have longer-than-usual conversations with my soul-sisters (my angels on Earth and best-friends) smile at everyone I come across and find my sense of spirit, peace and solace in my silence. While I’m at it, I would also like to look into the eyes of a wild horse and ride her saddle-free, look at leaves dancing to the wind and realise that this is one of the most beautiful dances ever, lose myself in the ocean… I could go on and on and on.
The point is, actions that are so easy to ignore and take for granted are the ones that matter the most. I believe only when we’re aware of our mortality, only when we understand that we’re here one minute and gone the next, we actually start living... not existing.
Life isn’t about the next purchase, possessions, family names, professional titles; it’s about who we are as people. It’s time to undress, strip ourselves of things and titles that cast a shadow on the real me and the real you. Some of us may dislike what we see and that’s okay… I can assure you that no one and I mean no one always likes what they see on the inside. We’re not supposed to like what we see; we’re supposed to be aware of its presence, understand the dislike, accept it for what it is and know that at the end of the day, people who truly love us love us with all those chinks in our armour. Life is not about being perfect (far from it as most of us will agree), it about accepting and living with the imperfections.
I agree that it’s easier said than done, but give it half a chance. Begin with baby steps, half a step if required. Sometimes you’ll find yourself taking a step forward and then going back… and that’s okay. The beauty is that you’ve started taking your steps.
I write this out of passion – passion for the one-day plan. I met one of my soul-sisters (Earth angels) one evening. While we poured our souls out to each other, we found solace in the silence that followed. We looked at each other, smiled and then laughed hysterically. A person sitting close-by walked up and said that we looked like the calmest, most peaceful people on earth and he was happy that everything was going our way.
As he walked away, we looked at each other again and thought – but not everything is going our way. Little did he know what she and I were dealing with – but life’s like that. We learn (with great difficulty and a lot of pain and tears) that soulful acceptance and belief in the universe’s plan is what eventually brings us our peace… real peace. Like everyone we go through phases of course; there’ll be days of solace in numbness, a few days of flying with wet wings and when we have no wings on some other days, the Almighty and the universe has a way of teaching us (again) to walk. The truth is looking at ourselves within, staying connected to ourselves and believing that we’re all a part of a greater plan.
I believe most of us spend a lot of energy trying to make things happen, in reality though, we can make things happens up to a point and then it goes the way it is pre-ordained. It’s natural for our mind to wish otherwise however, try letting go and try understanding that life does not begin and end with ‘I’.
Yes, acceptance is hard and reality can be mind-numbingly painful but belief in the greater plan (no questions asked) will get us through.
So do I have my one-day plan is place? Yes, yes I do… though I’d better start looking for that wild horse now. J
