It's been more than 100 days since the departure of my beloved mother. I feel like a time traveller! Most of the time I can only travel from the present to the past. Occasionally can travel to the future but as we all know, the future is always very uncertain. There are time we can "predict" the future. These are called projected outcome. More like a self-fulfilling prophesy rather than seeing into the future. The rules of this time travel game is simple. You can go back to the past but cannot change it. You can go to the future but you can change it to some point. I remember Uncle Lee Kim told me that 10% of the time, you cannot change things. But 90% of the time you can choose to react to the situation, change things, express, slow down, etc. So we have some autonomy in our lives rather than leaving to fate, destiny, luck etc. Unfortunately, we cannot change things in the past, as the Buddha taught us about life in general. We cannot really change the future either as it has not come and things change as time goes by. We have to live in the present, cherishing the ones still alive and living life to the fullest as we do not know when the end will come! Working with the sick and dying give me a valuable perspective on life. Experiencing death of a loved one also changed my opinion and outlook in life.
One thing we can always look forward in life is hope for a better future, honour the dead for their sacrifices as without them, there is no us in the present and maybe no future for our future generations!
Live for nothing, die for something! (Rambo IV)