When does one realize that life is getting serious?
That one is becoming an adult, after all?
That one is becoming an adult, after all?
While getting older, I find myself confronted almost on a daily basis with: friends who are getting married, who are starting a family and having children, who are falling in love, who are buying a house or moving to another city or making a career makeover...
I am not yet much confronted with death, but it happens sometimes to hear that someone I love just lost a friend, a relative, a loved one.
[Art installation Before I Die by Candy Chang
Image credit: Candy Chang.Com]
In the song "Beautiful Boy" John Lennon says that life is what happens to us while we are busy making other plans. Life is somehow difficult to be planned and we are used to thinking that we have a lot of time. We are used to saying: "One day, I will do this and that". We are used to taking a lot of things for granted.
Things that are not granted at all: being healthy, having friends, being safe at home, enjoying freedom (of choice, of speech, of religion...), having something to eat, having a job, and, most of all, being alive.
We do our best every day in order to forget that we are not going to be here forever and I think that we should ask ourselves more often what we really want to do with our lives. What we want to achieve, what we want to feel, what we want to see, what we want to listen to, what we want to learn.
What we want to outlive us and to remain when we will be gone.
While on the ocean sailing away
I can hardly wait
To see you come of age
But I guess we'll both just have to be patient
'Cause it's a long way to go
A hard row to hoe
Yes it's a long way to go
But in the meantime
Before you cross the street
Take my hand
Life is what happens to you
While you're busy making other plans
John Lennon, Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)
(Double Fantasy, 1980)
Yesterday I stumbled upon Candy Chang's brilliant art installation Before I Die and I found the idea wonderful and full of the joy of life. In Candy's words, Before I Die is:
It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day and forget what really matters to you. When I lost someone I loved very much, I thought about death a lot. This helped clarify my life, the people I want to be with, and the things I want to do, but I struggled to maintain perspective.
I wondered if other people felt the same way. So with help from old and new friends, I painted the side of an abandoned house in my neighborhood in New Orleans with chalkboard paint and stenciled it with a grid of the sentence “Before I die I want to _______.”
Anyone walking by could pick up a piece of chalk, reflect on their lives, and share their personal aspirations in public space.
What do I want to do before I die?
What's on my bucket list?
[Visiting Easter Island and seeing the Moai statues
is for sure on my bucket list. What's in yours?]
It is a powerful, difficult, and yet beautiful question. Take your time by replying. But it's important to ask yourself at least once what you really want to do. Before it will be too late. So you can start working on it, better sooner than later. Better later than never.
What do you want to do before you die?
Falling deeply in love with someone? Learning a new language? Visiting a foreign country?
If the answer is yes, how?
Tags: Candy Chang, Before I Die, Art installation, Death, Joy of Life, Bucket list
What to read next:
The best way to really change what you want to change in your life, step by step
Visiting the blog for the first time? Aloha!
What to read next:
The best way to really change what you want to change in your life, step by step
Visiting the blog for the first time? Aloha!
