One of my hamsters died sometime ago.
Coffee lived till a ripe old age of about two years old. She breathed her last on the palm of my hand. As I briefly sighed, “It’s only a hamster…”, I suddenly found myself pondering over her life, her purpose in living, and her achievements over her “full” life-time…
I found these thoughts going through my mind over the next hour…
For a large part of her life, she has spent competing with her “room-mate” Cookie, for the wealth of food that we feed them. I wonder if it must have seemed to her either “must-grab-as-much-otherwise-no-more”, or “the-more-I-possess-the-better-I-can-sit-back-and-enjoy-later”…
Apart from the hoarding and the slow savoring of the rich possession of food in the side of her mouth all day, the rest of her life is spent, in between naps, exploring every inch of her “world”, nibbling and biting at the cage, ever hopeful that one day she will be able to achieve a break through in extending her life’s boundaries, into the world beyond that she sees, always from the same angle, always looking better than her own…
Exercise! Yes! She must have achieved many miles by now. It has not only kept her slim, but it must have given her the huge motivation to keep at it night after night, tirelessly working for something that must have given her purpose…
What a revelation of my own life! Haven’t I invested most of my waking years going after the “once-in-a-life-time” opportunities – achievements that don’t seem much of a gain or loss now, at 37… I wonder what I will think then at 60… I wouldn’t wait to find out.
Yes, the other world has always looked different, and never looked more familiar after I have arrived. Haven’t I felt confined and limited? Haven’t I always needed a break through? No wonder the wise words of one who has it all, “Meaningless! Meaningless! Everything is meaningless!”
Haven’t I concluded such so many times? I worked and worked, I gave everything I’ve got, for a good 5 years… 10 years… and yet I seemed to be surrounded by the familiar that I started with, only missing the time I should have spent with those I treasured, the many things of God I should have slowed down to learn and enjoy, the abundance that I didn’t notice amidst all the needless worries…
As I looked into the cage at the remaining hamster Cookie, a 2-month old newborn, going about her new found routines, in the steps of Coffee, seemingly oblivious to what has just happened, I cannot help but sense the clarity that I, a much higher being, can see into her life ahead, yet knowing very well that I will not be able to communicate this to her, or make any difference… If only I can be a hamster, then I can help her understand, and help her see that there is a higher purpose…
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