When someone thinks of that slogan, they’d be forgiven for assuming it’s about all the things they need to accomplish before a certain deadline. That is absolutely true. However, the kind of goals that most people in today’s world are chasing after are those that only serve the physical self in this temporal existence, be that an appetite for food, travel, money or even carnal desires. How many people think of the achievements they need to be seeking in preparation of what lies on the other side of life? How many people even think there is another realm after this one?
I know that with age comes a heightened awareness of my own mortality and therefore a need to make everything I do connected to a spiritual dimension. This can be from the food I eat to the exercise I do and even the places I aim to see in the world. A consciousness of Allah and His intervention and design in all the plans I have, big or small, is what dictates the decisions I make. And yet I do falter. I am not infallible and sometimes my radar fails to direct me to what may be best for me at that time.
The irony of being in the latter stage of life is that, on the one hand, I want to wind down and take it easier than I have been lately. So, I’d love to reduce my working hours and have more time to spend in doing leisurely things. However, I know that having more time is not nececessarily conducive to doing more with it. Usually, the opposite happens. On the other hand, being older makes me feel more energised to do more with the finite time I have left. That contradiction within is a battle I silently wage every day but the latter situation always wins. My inherent disposition has always been to grab the chances that life offers and not miss the opportunity to do more and be more. And so, whilst I have to acknowledge the bodily changes that come with ageing, I will not succumb to a humdrum life for as long as I can keep going, insha’Allah.
2025 has been a year of many blessings, as have the years prior to it. However, for the first time I sense that bigger things are on the cusp of the horizon. Different things that I have never tried before. If I ever live to accomplish them, I will write about them here insha’Allah. And even if none of them ever materialise, I will know it wasn’t for want of trying. There is no shame in saying that things didn’t work out especially if I know I tried.
Concurrent to this, I feel my conversations with Allah have recently become even more personal – as if hearing my own thoughts are drowning out the voices of everyone else around me. I know that people will flit in and out of my life and that’s OK. Ultimately, it’s about what Allah wants from me and I am trying to respond to His demands in whichever capacity I can. I see life as one big waiting room and in that people will come, sit and then leave and others will come and take their place. And so the cycle continues. I need to remain focussed on my mission and not get distracted by the characters in the room. They are all ephemeral actors in my life like I am in theirs.
This way of thinking has liberated me in many untold ways. It is what gives me great hope that my last years in this world won’t necessarily be ridden with misery. They might just be the best years yet as long as I have my health and imaan insha’Allah. I move forward with a deep gratitude and a sense of anticipation not for what life will offer me but for what I can offer myself in my own life.
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