Twigs

I perpetually awoke to the chirpping of the birds along my windows every morning. And it sounded so near. I tracked the source and I finally found my alarm for the morning - the birds were building a nest on my rooftop, carrying twigs up there for their nest.

I almost rushed unconsicously to announce this to my parents until a voice stopped me in my tracks. As ridiculous as this is going to sound, I sat by my window trying to catch a glimpse of the birds and the nest-making process. *Of course I didn't manage to see it cos it was directly above my head. *

Anyhow, this got me thinking about the aims that everyone had in their lives. People became slaves to their bosses, the clocks that screamed 12 so that they could go off for lunch and even down to the most trivial matter-- waking up faithfully at the same time everyday so as to catch the bus to work. I guess everyone wanted to work their way up the coroporate ladder for themselves, and for their family. I mean, even the birds have an utmost aim in their lives-- to build a nest after finding the right mate and to generate the seeds of their love. What was my penultimate purpose in life?

Time and tide waits for no man. I pondered about this in my early teens and now I am approaching adulthood, sitting down here still wondering about the same question. *Don't even get me started on issues like what is the meaning of life* After some serious consideration, I have decided on somewhat a fuzzy but direct approach and motto in life-- carpe diem.

Everyone knows what carpe diem is. But how many of us actually execute this logic in life? How many of us really make sure that we live life to the fullest every single day? Admittedly it is a tough job, but not many of us can even safely agree that we live life as what we like it to be. The phrase itself means different things to different individuals. To a salesman, living life to the fullest means to sell as many products as possible in order to secure a higher income for the month; for a student, to be as productive as possible and so on and so forth. For me, I want to live life such that I wont live to regret it when I grow old.

I may be as mercenary as I want to be, as generous as I want to be, but I believe that whatever we do, we simply have to do it and like it for ourselves. We have been dictated by society all our lives-- to follow convention and not contravene it. Isnt it time that we all do something that we like so that we can proudly announce to the world that "I HAVE HAD A GOOD TIME TODAY!" I don't really want to live a life of regrets, going "If only I had..." everyday. That would make life so meaningless, wouldn't it?

Seize the day. Just like the birds-- if they dont get down to finding a suitable nest, they wont even be able to produce offsprings. And I believe they do feel that collecting twigs each day to build their nest is a meaningful action. Even the birds understand the meaning of living life to the fullest. Isn't time we learn and do the same?

In the meantime, I am still thinking about whether I should tell my parents about the nest. Till then, I would most probably be trying to get on with life, living each day as what I want it to be and deem it to be great. And most probably, I would be enjoying my life so much that I would forget about the birds till the day when I hear little birdlings chirpping for food from the nest. Then, I would have problems explaining to my parents about my slow actions.

Kai 2000