How do you want to be remembered ?

How do you want to be remembered ?

(By  A.Shanmugasundaram)

Many people wake up in the morning with the greeting of newspaper. For some, it is very difficult to manage the morning, if there is delay in supply of newspaper. Each one has a different taste. Each one rush to a particular section of the newspaper, according to their taste. Many youngsters search for the sports column and movie world news. Some go through the political news.

But, some really go straight to the obituary column. They wanted to know who have left the world. They carefully read the messages. Especially some old men have the habit of reading the obituaries first. Each obituary has carefully defined wordings about the person. A person is described in short only in obituary.  Some have died at the young age, some in the middle age and some in old age. Funerals and prayer services make us sad for obvious reasons, but also because we wonder if those who’ve died ever received these tributes of their impact while they lived. 

Just hold your breath for the question I am placing before you.

If you are asked to write your own obituary, how will you write and what will you write.

This is not negative thinking. Whoever comes to the world has to leave it one day. But in between what we do, is the matter. What adjectives you can add to your name ?  What specific factors you  can add to your name ? How your life is fulfilled ?

Throughout our life we are busy for some reasons. May be doing our business, doing our official works or honouring our home commitments, we are running around throughout. We don’t have  time to think about those things.

Why can’t we make our life a meaningful ?

Why can’t we live a life we want ?

Why can’t we live a life for others ?

Life is too short. Nobody knows what will happen tomorrow. Whatever the role given to us in this world, why we can’t do it in such a way that we will be remembered by everybody even after

our death.

May be we have not thought of it all along. Just I am kindling that part to think it over.

What is a well-lived life? 

How do you measure those who have lived beautifully? Is it their bank account? Their collectibles? Their charitable offerings? Is it their public acclaim? Their fame? Is it their travels? Who they knew? If you say you do not know, look back. What has touched you most deeply through the life of someone you’ve loved? Whatever it is, this is your underground criteria for happiness and whole-hearted living. 

Life is all about relationship. How much love you have expressed in your life time ? The more you express the more you get, then you get happiness, inexplicable joy.

If you are starved for love, it is not because enough people do not love you; but it is because you are not expressing your love to enough people. Love is love only when it respects the feelings of others. Love others, not for what they are, but, what you are, when you are with them.

In the family, between husband and wife, instead of sharing more love, only one to one seminar is happening.  Old people needs your caring eyes, your confident touch (confirming ‘I am here for you’)

and ears willing to listen.

May be some things might have been left out or kept postponed. Dig it out and do it right now.

Maybe it’s time to honour your friends, family or even brief acquaintances by acknowledging their contributions to making life better, in big ways and small.

Consider the following:

1.     Send a birthday card or wedding anniversary card and tell them about your favorite memory of them or an admirable quality that they have. Do not send by email or whatsapp. Use a postal cover with a stamp, and mail it. They will probably save that card forever.

2. Send an unexpected thank you note to a friend or colleague who helped you out.

3. Make it a weekly habit.

4. Remember and honour great customer service when someone makes an extra effort at a store, restaurant, or other business. Fill out the comment card, or send a note to the manager.

5. Use Face book or a group email to sing someone’s praises.

6. Ask for advice from someone you admire. People are often flattered and very willing to share their insights. You honour them by your desire to learn.

Let us not live a life which has some in the list of ‘things to be done later’. Don’t wait for the appropriate time to praise or compliment. Pass it on right now.

Let our Life be a fulfilled one. Even in the last day of our life, we can feel happy that we have our best in our life.

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me…Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful–that’s what matters.” Steve Jobs 

(The author is a Psychologist/Corporate Trainer. Email: vptraining@yahoo.com Cell 98404 85595)