Go slow my life

Go slow my life, I still have debts to pay,

some pains to heal, some obligations to meet;

While walking through you (my life), I offended some, some got estranged;

I need to appease them, and make the crying laugh;

Some desires are to be fulfilled; some work has to be done;

Unfulfilled desires deep in my heart still need to be buried;

Some relationships ended up breaking, some fizzled away;

The wounds of these broken relationships still need to be healed;

You (life) go ahead, I am coming; what will I get in leaving you?

The one who has the right to my breaths has yet to be convinced;

Go slow my life, I still have debts to pay,

I came across this interesting Hindi poem (translated by me) by a well-known poet, Gulzar. It touches upon the basic question of what remains to be done at a late stage in life.

As far as nature is concerned, you are done doing your duty once you raise your children. After that, it is just a bonus period. For most of us seniors, we are at that stage and we may be looking at several decades of life ahead of us.

We think about the coming years as the time when we can do what we want, within our health and wealth constraints. In my model for retirement, I have created six buckets for potential things one can do that include right and left-brain activities, spending time with friends/family, giving back the society, keeping fit and enjoying the pleasures of life. These activities might keep us busy during the rest of our lives.

However, to tell life to go slowly implies that we wish we had even more time than what is coming. According to the poet, we need that extra time because there are so many tasks that need to be done. These are tasks to “pay our debts” — — for obligations we have incurred and pains we have caused. Also, we need extra time to bury the desires that are not yet fulfilled.

He tells us to focus on people — -friends and family. All the rest is not important, at least not worthy of a request to life to go more slowly. Many of those activities are related to unfulfilled desires that need to be buried.

One final point, for many older folks, there is a desire to have life go faster and not slower. These people are in poor health or poor situation where they feel they are being burden to their families. They may be in disagreement with what Gulzar is saying.

So much depends on what life throws at us during the autumn/winter of our lives. However, when we have ability to make choices and take action, it is good to keep these words of wisdom in mind.

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