iWitness, a multi-awarded documentary (which already won two awards from the George Foster Peabody Awards), featured the life of Lola Guada (Lola is the Tagalog word for grandmother) and her entry into Bahay ng Pag-ibig (Home of Love), an institution for old people. Lola Guada is 67 years old and has no relatives. She was adopted by a certain family who endorsed her to the institution because they could no longer take care of her. Lola Guada served as a household help in that family.
While packing her belongings, Lola Guada was crying. She must have been terrified at the thought of leaving familiar faces and spaces, and heading on towards a relatively new life with strangers for the remaining days of her life. While watching that scene, my heart skipped a beat. I would be lying if I told you that didn't scared me. I literally felt the fear. I was scared and then sad. The thought of living your life with complete strangers and doing almost nothing like you are just waiting for the "end" scared the hell out of me. This is reality. We all have to face the "end" one way or another.
Looking Forward, Are You?
I realized after watching the documentary that we should make our lives count. Make our stay worthwhile. The only thing I can think of accomplishing this is to "care for others". Sure, we need a lot of things for ourselves. But if we focus less on ourselves and start extending our hands for others makes our stay less lonely... less scary... more attuned to the supposed meaning of life.
The key is looking forward not to our future demise (because that would be dreadful) but to the things we can still accomplish and to the consequent happiness and satisfaction we can derive in doing those things. In a way, we are in the living present and we should spend our lives to the fullest. As significant as our lives may be right now, we can still make it more meaningful. Our lives can still get better!
Here are some of the ways I thought that can make our lives more meaningful in this day and age.
5 Ways To Make Our Lives More Meaningful
1. reduce, reuse, recycle. Care for the environment. Contribute in the preservation of our Mother Earth. Let us help in providing the next generation with a better and so much cleaner place to live in.
2. desist from bootlegging. Stop intellectual property piracy. Respect. Respect other people's properties. Their products of hard work and creativity should be recognized and not to be stolen. It may be hard with all the technology around, but one less pirate results in one happier property owner.
3. contribute to charitable institutions. Money is not the only thing we can contribute. We can give away things we no longer need. We can also donate our time, hands, talent, expertise, or services. We can even donate blood to save lives!
4. teach a child to dream big. We should also show them how to achieve those dreams. We are their role models. We should inspire and show them the right path to successfully achieve their goals in life.
5. sincerely praise. Spread joy and happiness. A sincere praise goes a long, long way. They lift our spirits high and touch our hearts. Sincere praises even boost productivity. Smile!
You may say that I am an incessant hopeful. Remember? Dream big? It starts now! SPREAD HAPPINESS!
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