When I was very young, my parents once visited a temple that had an artificial pool created next to it. Its a common thing for people to use the pool to wash ones feet and offer flowers at the pool before visiting the temple. Some people even take a dip in the pool before entering the temple.

I was very young and seeing a man walk into the pool, stand for a moment and go down with his hands folded seemed odd. I asked my dad what he was doing and my dad said he was bathing before going into the temple. Seeing me observing closely my dad asked me to go ahead and do the same thing, if I wanted. I was scared and refused but my dad said it was nothing to worry about and helped me get a few steps into the pool.

The first time my head went under the water, a sudden sense of fear enveloped me. For the first time in my life I felt this conscious struggle to survive… In those two seconds of uncertainty I got one of my best life lessons.

Life you see has this baneful ability to run away from you. Its almost as if it wants to escape this cage of a body and be set free…

It took me another decade and a half to realize the bigger truth…

Life you see has this baneful ability to run away from you. No, not just in the sense that it seeks death but rather its like the fine sea sand that tries to escape from the hand that clasps it. Life has this innocuous ability to getting caught up in routine and let time slip by without a second thought.

Most people get through life to realize at the end that while they were alive right thru it, they never truly lived it. I guess my greatest fear is to end up like one of those people.