The Dash of Life

I am Kristoffer Afable…I was born on May 19, 1986, and as of this writing, I am 20 years old. If I’ll die, my tombstone would have the dates of my birth and death together, right? Let’s say, May 20, 1986-___________...

Its not that I’m in a hurry to die, and I’m pretty sure of myself that I don’t want to die soon, especially now that I’m seeing life in a whole new way, and I now have more reasons to live. What I am trying to focus myself on right now is what the “dash” between a birth date and the death date.

I heard this from my philosophy professor, and she told us that the dash for her is called the “dash of life”. Indeed, I agreed to what she said. It is indeed a dash that shows the beginning of life, the life itself and the end of it of a person.

I am pretty sure that everyone considers their birth as important and special. It is through the grace of God, with the intervention of our parents, that we are born. That’s why its so special, isn’t it? And along with this, I am also pretty sure that we consider death as something, somehow “inevitable”, in the sense that we know it to come, and its coming would signal the end of us (well…us in the physical world, that is).

But that is not the center of this short reflection. Our birth has already past, and our death can come sometime later. What is more important is where and what we have at present…here and alive. I think that is what the dash represents: the gap between the beginning and end of life: our life itself.

At this point, I would like to post this question: “How is my/your life right now?”

Of course, we don’t know the time when we will die, right? However, as we course through our lives right now, let us remind ourselves that what we do now is more important than the things that we’re gonna do when we are nearing death. I just hope that there will be less, if inevitable, remorse to the fact that we did less when we’re still young, when we approach death.

Life is indeed what we make out of it. It’s up to us, largely up to us, what happens to our lives. If we want to say that life is indeed beautiful, we have to work for it. Gone maybe are the times that we, “in a snap of a finger”, have beautiful or comfortable lives. What we do in our lives, or even with our selves, determines the future that ourselves and our lives will meet.

Indeed, I say that both birth and death are important. Yet that which is in between: life, which matters the most. Why? Because I think, in the end of our journey in this life, we will face our God and Creator and he will ask: “How did you use the life that I handed to you?”

Was my life at this point wasted?
How can I use this gift wisely?

There are many ways…and man, with the unlimited possibilities and potentialities given to him, has his whole life in front of him to see it. And as man journeys, he does not only learn what to do in life…he shares it with others. He does not only share, he is also shared with what others has.
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Life is indeed short, and negligence of it is inexcusable. Some may see that they’re still young to be too serious about life. But being aware of life and everything in it does not take into consideration on how old or young someone can be.

Ei, I would like to invite you to look into your life this time…and see, maybe there are things that we need to change. Or improve. Or remove. Or anything. The dash of life is our bridge between our birth and death. If it is not strong, we may fall too soon.

GOD BLESS EVERYONE!