Life's priorities

Noone really knows when they would  cross their personal middleage mark. But after a while, we reach a threshold beyond which we feel a greater urge to do all the stuff that we planned out to do.

Companies set prorities at regular intervals and then kind of work around doing the best for the top priorities. Because everything can't be done and is not required to be done. Won't it be great if similar prorities could be set for life? But measurability becomes an issue. How does one measure what is more important in life? There is no maths, no formula, no fixed parameters. Is happiness a parameter? Is success another? Yet both of these are themselves subjective. How do we measure happiness or rather for what time period do we measure? If we are happy currently is that enough to focus on the moment? Or do we stall, forestall and prepare for a safer future which may or may not actually exist? Yet if it did, it would become present again. Or do we set about doing first what we would regret not doing the most if we realized we had limited time on earth?

Each of the above three has their own pros and cons and thus defines different ways of living. Maybe that is also true for different phases of life for the same person...
For now I would be more inclined towards first or third but would be interesting to get different opinions in this.....

How do we set about priorities?

Turtles all the way down

There are novels and then there are novels  which fantastic stories or plots. Yet others with seemingly ordinary plots but amazing words. The kind where you want sit with a highlighter or notepad to make a note of all the gems you come across. Well this was one of those. Words worth noting, remembering, discussing. Each of these can themselves be a fullfledged blog. Maybe I will add that someday but for now, here are gems. I may or may not agree with all of them but definitely find them worthwhile.

Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills
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Your life is a story told about you, not one that you tell
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Anyone can look at you. It's quite rare to find someone who sees the same world as you see.
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I don't like to throw the L word around, it's too good and rare a feeling to cheapen woth overuse.
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True terror isn't being scared, it's not having a choice in the matter.
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Whether it hurts is kind of irrelevant.
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He who doesn't fear death,  dies only once.
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The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another. ~William James
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I is the hardest word to define
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Maybe you are what you can't not be
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The thing is,when you lose someone, you realize you'll eventually  lose everyone
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The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. ~Yeats
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In love like a sea you drown in or a town you live in. You don't get to be in anything else, in friendship or in anger or in hope.
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Reading someone's poetry is like seeing them naked
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I enjoyed being with him in this nonphysical space, but I also felt the need to board up the windows of myself.
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In 3 words, I can sum up everything I know about life. It goes on.  ~Robert Frost
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Even the silence has a story to tell you.~ Woodson.
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What I love about Science is that as you learn, you don't get answers. You just get better questions.
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You can't let the light catch up with the present. Otherwise you'd forget.
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In the best of conversations, you don't even remember what you talked about, only how it felt.
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The most important part of the body isn't the brain or heart but the part that hurts.
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"None of them work.
The other side....None of them have worked as yet".
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It's turtles all the way down.
Like, the world is billions of years old and life is a product of the nucleotide mutation and everything. But the world is also the stories we tell about it.
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I remember what I've imagined and imagine what I remember.
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The problem with happy endings is that they're  either not really happy, or not really endings, you know. In real life, some things better and some things get worse. And then eventually you die.

The other perspective:

You pick your endings and your beginnings. You get to pick the frame. Maybe you don't choose what's in the picture but you decide on the frame.
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I get nothing lasts. But why do I have to miss everybody so much.

To be alive is to be missing.
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Nobody ever says goodbye
unless they want to see you again....

Escape

We all feel the need to escape sometimes. All of us have different points of escape. For some, it is the regular places like home or workplace. For some, or others in different situations, it may not be the regular places but some other physical place where one is at peace. Sometimes it's not a physical space but some other point of escape...a call to a friend, book, movie or some other activity. A holiday.
It kind of depends on what we are escaping from. Some routine, people near us, some task or some situtation. Sometimes it's just ourselves. And then the escape place itself can get kind of lost.
Maybe that's when we go off to "find" ourselves.

Finding your way in this wilderness called life

Sometimes you are shoved in a direction about which you know nothing. You march ahead based on past experience and instinct. You falter, stumble and  get up. You may pause, wondering what would be right. Suddenly you may realize you know what is generally right but don't know what is right in different situations or paths. You may just follow a direction which you like and have followed earlier only realize you don't know the entire way. When one is following, it is not necessary to know the entire way. But when you are alone in a path or suppossed to show the way, it becomes essential. Sometimes you may ask the way randomly and get more lost. You realise that all people don't know the way or the path where you want to head. You realize you even have to be selective about whom or where to ask the way. You can't follow all paths. You may follow a sense of direction where you feel a basic confidence. But somewhere down the road, ultimately you have to chart out your own detailed way. It may get you lost at times, you may be unsure at times but slowly, as familiar landmarks get crossed, one learns how to create the way. You never stop making mistakes but slowly, you learn to trust your instinct and look ahead more than around. Because you know even if you get lost, you can look for a new way. Of course it helps when you know you can still ask for the approximate way when greatly lost. It gives you faith that you would never be really be lost as you embark the journey of exploration.

What strikes you first when you read the above scenario? It can depict different life situations: new parenting, any kind of relationship, changes in career or roles. It could also be a new hobby or even literally exploring a new place. Anything new requires a certain amount of exploration.