Life is Short

I know everyone in the world - minus the ones that have already "made it" and have succeeded - always wish that it would get better. That they could just find that one magical thing that will change their life for the better with utter finality. So they wont have to struggle any more. So they wont have to feel the cold; so they can fall alseep, snugly, with their favorite dish cozily busting the seams of their bellies. So they wont have a care in the world.

But get that for yourself. Finally, have everything you´ve ever wanted. Just try. You´ll see I´m right: the meaning of life will flit out the window just as quickly as you can chow down that peanut satay, or that steak and potatoes - you choose.

The main problem in life being, you don´t appreciate what you have, until you dont have it anymore. You´re too caught up in the moment of misery that, on most cases, you cant realize how good you just might have it. And if not good, how rich the life you own really is. How hard you fight, for the next good thing that you want. What IS life, without something to look forward to?

You may wish, whether in the freezing winter in a house with no insulation, wearing four layers and bickering through your shivers, for the choise spot infront of the gas heater, or bitching to no end about the lawful ownership of the most efficient - or maybe the only - fan in the house in the 40 dripping degrees that you call summer, but you form bonds, then. People will band together, given the right situation. Surely, enemies will be made. Bitter enemies. But so will friendships. And the struggle for life continues.

You may be one of those people - someone like me - that saw the rare chance to snatch up their own wild card and bail out. The fleeting glimps of a better life. But you, like me, probably had your head stuck in the day to day business of struggling to stay on top of life.

Your not to blame, to want the struggle to be finally over, at least for a few moments. But with everything fine, and no immediate, desperate need to struggle, time seems to blend into itself. And then you scramble to get the richness back. The excitement, of not knowing what to expect.

Maybe you breathlessly look forward to the next party with so-called friends, only to be dissapointed time and again, when you remind yourself, these are not the ones you formed such strong, intimate bonds with, through the times of struggle. They dont understand. They never could.

Maybe its the fantastic 4 course luxury meal you clinged to the thought of, while working your way through oatmeal and badly cooked omelets day after day, that you now get to enjoy whenever you so please, reminding yourself over and over again, that you have it now. Theres no more need to struggle.

Maybe its you, going on numerous holidays to exotic countries, trying, desperately, to bring back the spark, the magic, that you once shrugged off as normal in your day to day life.

But if you grab that wild card, you´ll spend your life moaning over low grade thrills, and frantically trying to reproduce your second hand emotions.

But the searing heat of summer, the blistering cold of winter, the painful longing for a real pork sausage with dill and mustard, brings the passage of time into sharp relief. And for once in your life, be happy with what you have.