Around 2 am on Sunday, which was International Father’s Day, I woke up suddenly, staring on the ceiling, just like the mind often does in the quiet hours, thinking about daily life. A simple thought popped up and got stuck in my mind and would not leave: you don’t truly own anything in this world. We know this as an everyday saying that people casually throw about and rarely thought about it deeply.
Nonetheless sitting there, considering everything at the same time, in the dark of my bedroom, the thought began to developed into practical meaning to me. I began to review all that we proudly call our own. The house you toiled for many years to build and maintain, the land you endured everything to save and buy; the car you bought either for for its status or for mobility.
We work diligently setting aside money from our salaries to be saved in our banking accounts.
We attached a feeling of ownership to our possessions with a sense of pride. Yet in the face of time, in the observation of the flow of life and history, those feelings about possession become so insignificant. Everything we own today will tomorrow be possessed by another person.
The man, who has spent his entire life building and developing his home, refers to it affectionately as his “mansion.” One day, he’s no longer here, dust settles and his home becomes a different person’s mansion. Same goes for everything we covet in this life; our wealth, our status, even our lives. It simply passes hands to the next steward who is tasked with enjoying, managing or simply using it in whatever capacity life will bring. These made me realized that we don’t “own” things at all; we merely have them as caretaker for a lifetime.
We enter the world with nothing, take advantage of what’s made available to us, use it, try to do right with it for the time it is entrusted to us, and then exit, leaving everything for the next soul who will pick up from where we left off.
This has always been the way of the world. The understanding gave me a new perspective on things and brought clarity to the all too familiar rush and collection culture that our world is known for. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t acquire properties, build houses or save money at all. It simply means not to die in the name of being an owner over things we will eventually leave for another person.
If anything, since we’re going to lose it eventually, maybe the best idea is to make good use of it while we had it. - to take care of ourselves-mental and physical well being. Make the best of the time, rather than constantly putting energy into building things that won’t be ours forever.
After all, the very body that we claim as “ours” is on loan and will be returned to the Earth.
Let that thought be a clarion call to realign your priorities. I now care less about how much things are in my name, and more about how well I live while I am doing it. That’s, ultimately, what we can truly claim to own anyway; how we used our possessions in our hands, as long as life allows us.
