“life” [a poem]

Instructions

(plz press the green flag and read :) | \/ I don’t think we’ve been living our lives like we’re supposed to. People think life is about leisure. Kicking out legs up on the coffee table and letting everyone else do the work for you, to trim your bushes and tidy up your room. Or maybe there’s no one to do it for you, and your bushes become overgrown and your room becomes a cluttered mess. People think life is about death. Be born, have children, and die, the only thing passed on is your heir and the only thing two feet in front of you is the casket you’ll be buried in, and everything you do in the meantime is worthless. People think life is about nothing. Existing without purpose. Existing just… because. The only thing stopping you from picking up the knife and finishing your life is your own lazy self that had ruined it to begin with. Maybe people do all three. I know for a fact that we haven’t been living our lives like we’re supposed to. Because we’ve filled it up with so much of this unnecessary nonsense that we can’t figure out the reason of life, when it would be so clear. I think life is about the people around you. Those day to day interactions that give you meaning. The people that make you think that you are someone; not a bag of flesh scaffolded by bone and sensed by neurons at the blink of an eye, but rather, a soul, or a conscious, or whatever you believe in. I think life is about peace. The warm energy that fills your being after a good day’s end, or when you see your son taking his first steps, or when you accidentally wake up early and see the sunrise, and feel at home with your good deeds and at peace with your sins. I think life is about God. That we won’t only be held responsible by a person as if they don’t have any sins of their own weighing them down. And that being kind in a world where kindness isn’t mandatory, and won’t be spared when you need it the most, doesn’t feel like a burden. I think all three. I don’t think there is an objective answer to the meaning of life. I think our own life means what we chose it to mean. A man who thinks life is about leisure will die in a pile of his own waste. A man who thinks life is about death will accomplish nothing in his own depression. And a man who thinks life is about nothing will have effectively reduced himself to nothing. But a man who thinks life is about people will have bettered himself as well as the people around him. A man who thinks life is about peace will go in peace. And a man who thinks life is about God will be in his arms Everafter. Now live your life before it passes you Hold on to the memories, but always be open for more There will always be a person willing to break you down; don’t do it for them Find your peace before death finds you And define your life before it becomes meaningless. note: I was debating whether or not to remove the line that read “God,” but the context in which it was used isn’t necessarily forcing religion, and you can take away from it perfectly fine (but it did originally read “Allah,” and I just changed it to be slightly more inclusive to the other monotheistic religions)