I was reading on Facebook about a dear friend whose sister had passed away, and her response really made me think. She said she was thankful for the good times they had together. Since life is short and often doesn’t seem to have obvious meaning, that response feels very grounded. The challenge is that we often don’t recognize the value of moments while we are living them, because we are not fully present. Time passes, and the moment is gone. That’s why it matters to appreciate things as they happen and enjoy them for what they are.
Forgiveness at the End of Life
I often see parents whose children have grown up, and they feel sadness at how quickly it all went by. In another case, a friend’s sister was dying of cancer and had only a week left. She had been deeply abused as a child and carried resentment toward her sister, refusing to see her before she died. One sister held love, the other held anger and resentment. It makes you reflect on how important forgiveness is, especially near the end of life. Even when someone has treated you poorly, forgiveness becomes part of your own healing and growth. In this case, the blamed sister had done nothing wrong, yet the other carried that belief for her entire life.
How Quickly the Moments Become Memories
As we get older, time seems to move faster, and moments pass almost before we notice them. A grandchild’s birth, a trip with friends to the mountains or Europe, a marriage, these are profound experiences, but they quickly become memories once we return to daily routines. Recently, we spent a month in Kauai, and it already feels like it passed in a blur once we returned home. Life fills up with events, parties, new friendships, shared experiences, but even joy fades as we move into something else.
Even at work, many of the people we spend our entire adult lives with become part of our life story. It is important to recognize and honor them, even if the connection is simply sharing work hours and daily life together.
Gratitude and the Brevity of Human Life
Gratitude matters. Especially when you have been able to live these experiences in good health. Human life is brief in comparison to the Earth, and even more so to the universe and recorded history. Throughout time, there have been leaders and nations striving to leave their mark. At 23, I used to read Will and Ariel Durant’s The Story of Civilization, an eleven-volume series, and what stood out most was the long history of wars and the slow evolution of humanity. One nation fights another, soldiers die for honor, and there is often the belief that peace will come once one side prevails over the other.
Finding Peace Within
Yet that rarely happens. So peace must be found within. In the Star of Light perspective, peace comes from going inward and aligning with nature and the intelligence of your own body. Everything in life is energy, thoughts, emotions, and physical experience. If you spend your life fully absorbed in inherited religious stories without questioning or experiencing your own truth, you may live within illusion. Others come to realize that life is about awareness, presence, and understanding your own energy. My hope is that you arrive at that understanding and do not let life pass without being present to yourself and your experiences.
The words “God bless” can be understood simply as gratitude for the gift of being alive.
