What is life?
What is the purpose of life?
How could I live this life?
Why do I live?
These are the questions that
often come into my mind. I keep searching for the answers of these questions
but it seems so hard to find them.
Until one day I happened to
pass by a river. Rushing water moves continuously, it seems unending.
It is full of vigor. As I look at it I can see that water seems to be
excited to reach its destination. While looking unto it I noticed that
the color of the water is not clear. It is more like milk mixed with
coffee. There's a lot of junk in it: cans, plastics, dirt,
and leaves are floating on it. Seeing the dirty water makes me feel
sad because I think that this water in the river might not be useful
anymore. How could be the dirty water be useful? We can’t drink from
it, nor take a a bath in it.
Having that sadness within
me I continue walking beside the river, trying to enjoy the scenery around me. While walking, I noticed that the vigorous
sound of the water can’t be heard anymore. I look at the river again
and I noticed that the water in the river became less
in amount and it also moves slower. I continue walking and I notice
that the water totally disappeared from my sight. Another question comes
into my mind. Where does the water go? Why
is it gone? Then I remember our lesson in science class before
about water cycle. Our teacher told us before that water sometimes goes
with air which what we call evaporation. It is a process in which water
turned into air and goes up in space then later on it falls to the ground
in the form of rain. Another reason why water disappears
is that it goes into the ground. But it does not stop
there. It continues moving, passing through rocks, gravel, soil and
sand below the ground.
I tried
to forget about the water and enjoy gazing at
the panoramic scenery. I set
my eyes ahead of me. I see something sparkling through the striking
light of the sun. There is something like a sparkling crystal not so
far away from me. It
sparkles brilliantly in the sunlight. As I come near
I notice that the sparkling thing I saw a while ago is a body of
water. It seems to be the continuation of the river. But there is a
big difference between the water I first saw and the water I’m looking
at now. Now I can see the crystal clear water, not the same light brown water. I asked myself why? Is this a miracle
or magic? How could it be? A dirty river turned into crystal
clear water. As a nature lover I was amazed of what I have seen. The river
seems to invite me to step into it. I decided to go down and put my foot into the clear water. At that moment I
feel the cool touch of it into my skin. I feel relaxed. The sadness
I felt a while ago was suddenly gone and it was replaced by happiness.
Then I realized that the water
goes down through ground in order for it to be
purified by the gravels, sand and big rocks
in the ground. All those things seemed to be hindrances that make
the water move slowly, cleansing and making it pure. These things
serve as purifiers that make the dirty water clean and useful again. After passing through
all these hindrances water continues to move in order to reach its destination: the wide
sea, where waters of the world come together.
Then I remember the question
I had before. The water in the river gave me the answer to my questions.
First, what is life? Life
is a journey. It is a journey which we have to take. In this journey
we pass through different stages. I do believe that when I was born
I have nothing but the body, spirit and breathe that my Creator had
given me. My mind is empty; it is like a blank notebook that needs
to be written. It is covered by the dirt of ignorance and innocence.
But as days passed by and I continue living I was able to encounter
different experiences, problems, and trials, which I consider the sand,
gravel and rocks. These experiences,
problems, and trials give me trouble and make me think of quitting.
All these seemed to be the hindrances which are trying to stop me from
lifting my feet to walk forward and continue living.
Second,
how would I live this life? In living this life we need to be flexible.
We also need strength and self-confidence while we face trials and problems that we experience in our lives. We should know
how to deal with problems. When trouble comes, all we need is to
face it. As the water encountering rocks, sand and gravel we
will face trouble even as it will
slow us down. We should keep going forward. We should think of the way in which we overcome
that trouble. Water passes through rocks by going down the rocks, sometimes
through the sides of the rocks since it can’t climb up on it. But
it never quits. So we should not quit either. If we can’t
directly face it for its size we can pass through
it slowly as long as we do not quit. Quitting or running away from problems
can cause more problem which sometimes are much bigger and heavier
to carry. If we run away, we will be considered cowards. Cowardice
is failure. There are so many things we can do in this
life besides quitting. Quitting is a defeat
without engaging the battle. In living we
need to be optimistic. Thinking positively will keep us going forward despite the difficulty to
persevere.
The last question I have is: why do I live this life? If the water in the river has
its destination, which is the sea, we also have our destination
and purpose. Why we are living here on Earth? In our life, the
wide sea is the success we aim to achieve. We need to dream , so that
we will have the reason to live. I have a dream that I want to achieve.
This dream keeps me me motivated to live despite the difficulty of my life.
My wide sea is to be able
to reach my dreams not only for myself but also for my family and for
the people around me. I live this life for me to offer my help to those
who need it. I admit that I am ambitious. I have many dreams that I
want to fulfill and I want to use my life to make others fulfill their
own dreams.
Life’s purpose is not achieving
something for us alone, but having something for us to share.
Like the water, we can move
continuously and supply the needs of others. May our hearts flow with love and care endlessly.
Water is purified by rocks,
sand, and gravel while we are purified and become wiser because
of trials. Continue your journey and reach for your own sea.
Good luck..:)
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