By Darren Lum
With the funeral for Queen Elizabeth II on Monday, Sept. 19, it’s a reminder that everyone’s time is limited. It doesn’t matter how powerful you may be and how much advantage is at your service. We all die.
My mother loved the pageantry and, pretty much, everything related to the monarchy when I was growing up. She would be among the mourners except she’s not. I’m not even sure she knows about it and, if she did, I’m not sure it would register. Having suffered a stroke a little more than a dozen years ago, she’s never been the same person I knew as the woman who stayed with me my first week of school ( because I wouldn’t let her leave), or who waited in line after work at the Uptown theatre in Toronto to secure seats to the opening of Tim Burton’s Batman feature movie. It’s almost like she died when she was taken to the hospital for the stroke.
Seeing her and how the Queen died, I see what’s most important are the people who love me. My family and friends. It’s also the experiences that simply take may breath away. A life with passion is a life worth living.
The work and life balance is more than a line. It’s a responsibility and it needs to be lived out by setting boundaries, which enables you to be the best person for the people in your life. When’s the last time someone on their deathbed said I wished I worked more?
We must live with intention and take action, which is a position that is in our best interests compared to letting life happen to us. Remain curious. Be open to life. Be available for change. Life has a lot to offer. It’s there to seize.
If you’re in a place where you don’t have the answers. It’s OK to not know.
Oscar Wilde said, “If you want to be a grocer, or a general, or a politician, or a judge, you will invariably become it; that is your punishment. If you never know what you want to be, if you live what some might call the dynamic life but what I will call the artistic life, if each day you are unsure of who you are and what you know you will never become anything, and that is your reward.”
The value we take from this world is through actions we take for the discovery of our self and how we find our purpose in it and how it gives us the fulfilled joy that lifts the spirit and fills the heart.
I’m guessing, but I see our collection of candidates taking action towards making their respective communities a better place for this upcoming municipal election on Oct. 24.
Kudos to the courageous residents who took action to be candidates. They are looking to be part of the change. They are putting themselves in a place open to criticism. They are getting out there. Don’t let them down. Be part of democracy. Learn about the candidates and vote.
We all can take a page out from the actions of these men and women. Take action and find your way.
Let’s get excited to live again. To see each sunrise as an opportunity. To see each sunset with satisfaction, knowing the effort was there to move the needle forward, to set another brick in the foundation to a new chapter of life.