What If

Being such the pack rat that I am, I sometimes meditate on how different it would be for me if I were in a completely unimaginable situation, something I would normally choose not to think about.

How would I feel if I suddenly had no money at all, no possessions, no friends and no family;
What if I lost them all?

Or if I now had to beg for alms or food, and someone I knew saw me? And all the food I could eat would be leftovers, spoiled and dirty.

Or if I didn't have a roof over my head and I was forced to sleep in the dump --- rain or shine? No toilets, no showers, no soap, no toiletries, no clean water, no laundered clothes; Stinking to high heavens.

Basically having nothing, no one and not even my good health.

With no one to care for me if I got sick and couldn't move even to help myself.

With some form of pain that never goes away.

Worse, what if I were a vegetable, paralyzed and no one around for me?

And to add to the pain of it all, being in this position after growing up not wanting much.

It kind of makes you think, doesn't it?

Of how blessed and fortunate we are. To have food, a home and loved ones that love you back --- whatever the kind.

But of how at the end of our lives, these are the very same things we need to let go of anyway --- our health, wealth and loved ones.

In a more practical sense, I think exercises like this remind us that we are, after all, no different from one another. The only difference being money, something you leave behind when you die, should be no valid point of differentiation. But sadly, it is.

The best we can do, really, is to count our blessings and give as much as we can to uplift the lives of those less fortunate than us.

This New Year, my call to action for you is: "Let us get rid of all our excesses and deposit them where they are needed most."

And more importantly, to "Learn to slowly let go of all our worldly connections, for we will anyway have to do so someday"

(Blog Composed and Posted from somewhere in the world on my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld)