After writing The Sand Clock, I sat back and really thought about my mortality. It is one thing to write about the lives of others but a totally different thing to seriously think about your own. So…… I sat down and wrote a few thoughts.
The Ladder of Life
Whether we know it or not, we are all standing on the ladder of life. When we are born, we are on the bottom rung. When our great-grandparents die, our parents move up one rung and we move onto their step. Our parents die and then we assume their position; not only their position on the step but the top position on the ladder.
Death is not a part of the vocabulary for the very young. When we are in our teens, we consider forty to be old. In our forties, eighty is considered old. Then, one day, we realize that our parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, family friends and neighbours have all disappeared. We now stand alone on the top step. With every step up the ladder, we learn life lessons. Some lessons are repeated until we understand ourselves and our environment. Most times we tailor those lessons to improve the quality of our lives. These are the lessons that help give us a better perspective of ourselves and our place within society. Much preparation is needed before successful stepping takes place.
Successful preparation helps us to find our place within the community of humanity. I am not referring to religion. I am talking about our own purpose for being. Billions of people share the earth today. Very few people make their presence known. The individual, therefore, can only hope to survive and improve their corner of the world. When we reach the top rung and look back, hopefully, we can smile and feel a small sense of accomplishment. We can then, cautiously, move ahead with peace of mind and a full heart.