Life is like a raindrop
The gift of reflection is perhaps, by far, the most fulfilling and compelling one that humankind can ask for. For it is in the process of introspecting and relating our existence to the objects and entities around us, that we rediscover what is otherwise lost to us amidst the chaos of the world.
One may be pushed back in wonder repeatedly though not redundantly, about the purpose of his or her creation. After all, don’t we all, in theory and in practice, in business or any other professional and vocational practice, often retreat to this fundamental question as to why we had started this project in the first place, when faced with a myriad of confounding choices? Yet, when it comes to our descent to this mortal life, we do not deem the same process to apply, in large extent due to the fear surrounding our own end inspite of the macabre all around us.
It is frequent to hear of how we were not born to just eat and drink and aimlessly enjoy ourselves with the amusements life has to offer us, or to simply amass wealth and more wealth to secure our families’ future, even if at the expense of treading on others’ rights over us. This phenomenon is time and again likened to the predicament of a modern-day traveller passing through an airport, then romanticising about spending more time enjoying the shopping arcade (duty-free mind you), falling in love with the cafeteria and what they serve, intoxicating himself or herself with the beauty around, all in the process of missing his or her connecting flight. When put in this manner, it seems unthinkable someone would do this. On the contrary, most passengers we see enroute at an airport are on their edge, listening to every next announcement as if it was talking to them, checking the flight schedule screens again and again to confirm that everything is on schedule. Unfortunately, the exact opposite actions happen in our lives where we all but ignore the main announcements and the reminders in the form of revelations as well as death around us, happening moment after moment.
Reflection is also dominant when we watch pictures in space, the glory of the scene rekindles our comprehension about the extent to which Allah’s supremacy and prowess is boundless, then as the camera or the graphic zoom in and out to a garden or a home in the world, one is instantly struck with the abject realization of how miniscule our large personalities are in the greater scheme of things. A tiny speck or an invisible existence but one never forgotten by the Master.
Life is like a raindrop, as it falls out of the sky (youth), it is in a hurry to pour out (desire to growing up), but as it hits the ground in no time (passage of age), and falls to the ground (an aged person), the brief moment before it is sucked up by the earth (time before death), it looks up in remorse and regret of his short the whole journey was (span of life).
Are we prepared to agonise or to celebrate as life is soaked out of us at that critical moment? Which, by the way, could be just round the bend?
