60 Minutes

What would I do if I was absolutely certain that there are only 60 more minutes left in my life and i will be no more alive after 60 minutes…?

My priorities would collapse in an instant, what was so very urgent and important few moments back, would almost cease to exist, just 60 minutes, I don’t want to spend them thinking what to do, since there is no time to think, I just want to do whatever I want to do

At this juction, Some people would choose to meet their family members and be in their company, some people would choose to take care of their financial matters so their family and children have secure future, some would choose to go deep in meditation, some would choose to contact any and every one and ask for forgiveness, some would choose to do one thing they always wanted to do provided it’s possible in 60 minutes, some would choose to express their love and gratitude to their loved ones, some would remain undecided even after 55 minutes are over, some may choose something totally different then all the above choices. What would i choose, right now, i dont have a clue but really its already making me think...

Whatever I chooses in those precious moments, one thing is for sure, it would not be about the small nitty-gritty’s of life, the small day to day decisions would not even exist in my focus at that moment. It’s a moment of transformation, within an instant, life comes at a standstill, the things which were absolutely important and urgent a moment back, may not even get a chance to make it to my priority list, and things I never ever thought about, take precedence and I might catch myself by surprise.

It’s a wonderful metaphor, 60 minutes, tells me what should be the real priorities of my life, I am sure these priorities would vary from individual to individual, but the fact of the matter is that if I sit back and reflect at the answer to this question asked above, I might come across things I usually don’t choose to think about, the answer would be fueled and influenced by the values of my life, for some people family is their highest value, for others its faith, yet for others its freedom or courage or prudence. As far as I am concerned, its purity of life, giving, family and being one with the ONE that takes precedence over every thing else, in those 60 minutes, which one i would choose, it is still a guess, but choices are very few, atleast for me.

Generally speaking, keeping every thing else aside, the answer to this question would reveal our true nature to ourselves, what we value most in this world, what is really important in our life, what matters most to us deep down inside etc. I asked this very question to one of my friends, and he said, he would choose to apologies to his parents, whom he left 5 years back and have never spoken back to them again, he said, actually this thought never occurred to him before this question, that deep down inside he still loved his parents very much and he still cared about them. As I am writing this, I just chatted with one of my friends in Asia, she said, she would choose to relax and spend time with her son and husband and so nothing else and when I asked, she told me that family is the top value of her life.

The question is not exactly how we end up spending those 60 minutes, the question is are we aware of those priorities, do we have enough courage to do those things right now, when we have ample time at our disposal, though we still don’t know how long we are alive, but at least we don’t have a dead line of time i.e. 60 minutes or so. For someone, it might turn out that they don’t have a will for their family and may choose to take care of that, for others, it might be re uniting or spending more time with families and friends, yet others may choose to pursue their dreams or people like me who would choose to reflect back at life, and start correcting themselves and asking for forgiveness for all the wrong doings of the past, and start a fresh new life, dedicated to others.

I still remember this 58 year young man, telling me that when he would die, they would instantly squeeze the blood out of his body so that it can be used to help someone in need, and to my surprise, he told me that he has donated all his body parts that may save or improve life of up to 50 more individuals, Why do I need my body after I leave this world, why not if it can be of help to any one, I would not need it any more. It really opened the new arenas of possibilities in my mind regarding priorities and values.

I also remember this 78 year old young man, who is a millionaire, and had a will, according to which 40% of his wealth would go to establishing trust that would take care of needy individuals throughout the world, when faced with this question it occurred to him that rather then waiting to die and then getting a trust established which may or may not work according to his dreams and aspirations, why not start a trust right away, so he can make sure that it is exactly working as per his needs and requirements. To this day, this young man is happily alive and already helped hundreds of people all around and plan to continue to help thousands more.

Above examples are from very specific individuals and with very specific values and beliefs, you and I may choose to think differently as our values may be different, I may choose to donate my whole big collection of books to a local library where it can help many more individuals rather then staying and gathering dust at my home, you may choose something entirely differently.

Good thing to know is that, more then likely, as you are reading this, you have more then 60 minutes to live, may be years and years ahead are waiting for you, What can you do, what you choose to do, what are your values and aspirations, how you want to pursue them, or do you want to pursue them.

Every hour has another 60 minutes, think of it as another episode of life, that is granted to you, I am sure if those are last 60 minutes of your life, you and I both would choose to live them at our best, do whatever matter most to us, but when we don’t know if next 60 minutes are last 60 minutes in our life, be sure it may be, almost 6500 people die every hour, not every day, every hour, life may not let us know that we have those precious 60 minutes left, in fact the very moment we are living right now may be the last 60 minutes or may be one of the last

Who knows?

How many more episodes of 60 minutes are left in our life?

May be 1, 2, may be few more

May be much more

May be a lot more

The question is not how much more time we have left; it is how we choose to spend whatever is left. Choice is still in our hand

It’s not the time in life that matters

It’s the life in that time that really matters

are we ready to live,

next 60 minutes...