Carpe Diem

Carpe Diem: “Seize the moment”.

I learnt about the phrase “Carpe Diem” when I was a teenager. I still remember how tilting her head up towards the sky, followed by a graceful arm gesture, my friend, Vanessa, said

“Carpe Diem! Let’s live carefree.”

Back in the day it probably meant that we shouldn’t study and turn up to our exams with minimal effort. And honestly, till recently, I thought it meant to just live it up and be carefree. Today, my perspective is different. In fact, seize the moment can be synonymous to ‘impermanence’. We constantly tell our friends to make the most of life and that everything is impermanent, yet one day this realisation truly dawns on us. And that’s when we realise:

“Oh damn!!! Seize-The-Moment! Now!”

Each moment is a gift. No two moments would ever be the same and any opportunity we get today, may not be there tomorrow. But let’s not be pessimistic because other opportunities can appear. If they don’t, then we can find a hammer and hire a builder to build a door of opportunities. DIY isn’t the topic of the day though.

The point is that if we are being given a chance to do anything today, whether that’s helping someone, loving, caring or creating something, we have to do it now. There is no guarantee that other chances will come. If we count our life in minutes, in hindsight we’ll realise that we are given a set amount of minutes for given endeavours , moments, achievements or just to live. How many minutes do you have left in your current season? Who knows? We only know that we have this moment to seize.

If you were ever a fan of Fort-Boyard, you may remember the stress of watching time run out as indicated by the hourglass and fearing that the person from your favourite team would be stuck in the chamber. They have to act fast!

Well, life and all its moments is no different. Life comes in seasons, and if we ponder upon our past, everything appears so transient, yet we repeat the same mistake of not seizing the moment, over and over again. There is no second chance to another season, for it will be a completely different season altogether. 

Yes, this isn’t a round-up, but instead it’s quite an urgent reminder to all of us:

Carpe Diem, I say. Carpe Diem now, for a life without regrets.

The sand in the hourglass is moving.