Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Life! This is No Dress Rehearsal by Dr Ronald Sinagra

In 1985 I went out and bought myself an expensive pair of Sergio Valenti pants and a matching shirt with a zipper up front. I thought I looked great. I looked ridiculous. These clothes were my best so I kept them tucked away in my closet so they would not get ruined. Then one day I went through my closet and found this awful outfit still wrapped in the plastic from the dry cleaners. It was my Sergio Valenti pants and shirt! I thought I would save them for a special occasion but when I found them they were useless for they had gone way out of style. That was my first experience in realizing that life is no dress rehearsal.

As silly as my clothing story is, it really has some meaning behind it. In our culture we tend to hold back as if we were coming back. Life is lived once in the context that we understand. Here on this planet there is but one go around. So what the heck are we waiting for? As the pace of life quickens you must find the balance between living today as if you were going to die tomorrow and working and saving as if you were going to live forever. This is a major key in balancing life. I have noticed that many of us tend to view and live our lives as if there will always be a tomorrow. We wait for the special occasions to use the good china or wear the new outfit. Unfortunately someday we wake to find the events we saved our fine things for have passed us by. That special day in all our lives is today.

When you come to the awareness that life is not a dress rehearsal your perspective on how you see and treat others can change. If you were to die and upon reaching heaven you were to ask God to give you just one more day, what would you do differently? How would you love your spouse? How would you love your children and family? How would you see the world? There is an old saying “life is a dream.” Most of us believe that we have a spirit and this body is the temporary home for our soul. Most of us also believe that when we die we go to heaven and this is an eternal spiritual place. So life on the grand scale is a physical dream as compared to our true eternal spirit. Imagine you were dreaming. In this dream you are hoarding your money and possessions and holding back your love from the people in your life that need it most. All of a sudden you wake up. Would you not feel foolish? Would you not ask yourself, “Why did I act this way?” “Why did I hold back and not tell the people that I love that I really do love them?” “I should have lived that dream to its fullest.” I really do believe that our lives are physical dreams. One day we will look back at our lives as we do when we awake from a dream and say “if I only knew, I would have done things so differently.” Awareness of the big picture helps keep life in perspective.

Americans in particular like to strive, a new car, a bigger house, etc. How much is enough? When do we stop striving and start arriving? There is nothing wrong with wanting more or nicer things. There is however a trap that comes with striving. The trap is that we tend to look and focus on what we do not have, and overlook what we do have. As soon as we get one thing our thirst is only satisfied momentarily and then we move to our next desire. Taking time out to enjoy the things in life makes acquiring them worthwhile. It is important not to lose today yearning for “things” tomorrow.

In a few years you probably won’t remember any of the problems that confront you today. In fifty years most people reading this won’t be alive. In a hundred years more than 99% of the population will never know you and I ever existed. This life is a short dream. You can’t sweat the small stuff. Life is not a dress rehearsal, this is not a preseason. It’s game time and the clock is ticking. Take time to give, love, and see the beauty of this life. Today is the only guarantee we have.

No comments:

Post a Comment