11/09/2023
The Value of Your Life
To everyone life has value, what is the value of yours?
What would you do to preserve it or protect it, and when would you risk it or even consider ending it?
The beauty as well as the curse of being human, is that we are dynamic and ever changing. We are up and down, happy and sad, jubilant and depressed and unable to always clearly see the future to prepare for what might be next.
People strive in life to succeed, and if things go even better than planned we seem to manage reasonably well. Seldom does someone strive to fail, and if failure does occur, no one welcomes the impact of failure of an even worse magnitude then ever expected, and fair to say we are not practiced or prepared to deal with that failure.
We seek love and companionship, often unprepared as to what to do next in a budding relationship, but excited to try. Many are also unprepared or well equipped to manage a deteriorating or failing relationship as well. Many further become entangled in unhealthy dynamics to avoid or ignore a bad relationship, some even enduring abuse or neglect.
We as humans also experience loss in a very multifaceted way, often grieving and processing our loss through our thoughts, emotions, experiences and reflections, or through excess, denial or destruction
These several examples of being human remind us how dynamic and vulnerable we are and can be. Some people have developed a variety of experience in these areas, some have almost none.
If a person is not experienced in processing and dealing with the pain associated with life, then at times of extreme pain, the impulse or even the plan to end life as a solution to the pain becomes very real. It is at this intersection that the value of life becomes negotiated, and for some lost.
As a society we do not communicate well, we do not teach well about relationships building or ending, we over value success, and we do not teach or process loss well.
Valuing life includes valuing everyday, not just the good, but the failure and the flops. We need to be trained to experience the pains of life, and go through them, process them, but not keep them forever. We need to be taught that success is measured and derived from failure, and be taught to learn more of ourselves, accept more of ourselves, and appreciate that sharing our self with others changes us and them, and accept that this is not always for the better.
The value of life needs to be discussed more, evaluated more and protected more. It is very easy to quickly see life as fleeting, disposable and negotiable.
It would also be good to regularly check in with key people to review the value of your life. God, parents, friends and select others will always offer perspective to you on the value of your life.
You are always valued and loved, but in crisis you need to know this resoundingly and consistently.
