A Moment in Time

The sun was coming up and a new day was dawning. Soon it would be time to make a move. The time for thinking was over, the time for acting was now. I had come for just this moment and I knew this was the place where it was to happen. The leafless tree silhouetted against the lightening sky marked the spot and the rising sun marked the time. I knew it was now or never, there would never be another chance. I had to move forward and I had to start the process.

I was frozen to the spot

I gathered my thoughts and reviewed the series of steps that would open the door to a new beginning for me. As the sun's light and intensity grew with the advancing dawn I felt its energy and power and knew this was the moment to make my move. If I failed to opt for renewal I would fall back into darkness and despair and it would all come to an end for me. If I failed to go forward into renewal, I would not be able to go back into the shadows of the half-life that had been mine till now. The failure would destroy me and I would be left with nothing, I would become nothing.

I stood there, and looked around me, surveying what I was leaving behind, which gave me even greater resolve to push ahead. I turned back to what lay before me and seemed to beckon me. I was sure that the place was pinpointed by the hibernating tree, that the time was marked by the sun's position on the horizon, and I felt a restless energy coursing through my body. This was it. There was no time to lose, the moment had come, the window of opportunity was a very narrow one and delay would be fatal. I took a deep breath, stiffened myself for what was to come, focused on the tree in the near distance, and stepped forward... and that’s when it all started to happen for me.

That was a long time ago now, and now as you read this, I may already be beyond this world.

The Throw of the Dice

Our lives, like it or not, are to an enormous extent shaped and determined by mere chance, accident, fortune, good or bad luck, fate, call it what you will. Many of us may not wish to acknowledge this, especially if we are doing well and the world seems rosy - for the time-being - but luck it is pure and simple and it plays a huge part in our lives. Some may see this as the work of Destiny, the intervention of Lady Luck or even the hand of God. It matters not so much how we see it or what we call it, but we do well to take account of it and live our lives accordingly.

You might say that it is life's equivalent of the throw of the dice in games of chance and gambling. And because of it our happiness hangs on a thread and it can evaporate so easily and so quickly from one day to the next. We see this every day when we turn on the television and watch the news. It takes only one accident or misfortune to completely destroy the happiness and tranquillity of a person, a family, a community. Just one act of man, serious illness or natural calamity is enough to destroy years of sure and steady progress on the path of good fortune and happiness. Years of prosperity can be wiped out in the twinkling of an eye and we witness this regularly happening round the world.

When we are riding high we tend to take the credit for our good fortune whereas when we are down and out we take some comfort in putting it down to plain bad luck, the throw of the dice. We like to think that success is the fruit of our own personal efforts and failure the outcome of misfortune and accident. The truth may be somewhere in between: a combination of our actions and fortuitous circumstance. And we have many examples where the best efforts and intentions of someone have come to nothing and the inaction or wrong action of another has been crowned with good fortune! In such a case it is hard to argue that accident has not had the starring role in the proceedings.

It is true that a positive attitude to life may help and may assist us in achieving certain goals or accepting failure or misfortune with philosophical stoicism or resignation or even as a challenge to do better or to learn from our nistakes. But however we look at it and whatever our reaction, our lives continue to be hostages to fortune, to the throw of Nature's dice, to the vagaries of our world and the 'human condition'. The dice in the picture above are cast by man but the dice that determine the course of our life are cast by a higher hand, by a hand unseen and unknown, by a hand that is unswayed and unchecked by our wishes and desires. It is the principle which governs the whole of the Universe, the whole of Creation. It is in short the cosmic throw of the dice.