'Life Just Happens Then It Doesn't'

Life just happens then it doesn’t

Life just happens then it doesn’t. This was a weird realisation I had, probably at a time that I was daydreaming or trying to get to sleep. This isn’t an essay or a particularly elaborate piece of writing, just me sharing this thought.

So, what do I mean by ‘life just happens then it doesn’t’? When taken truly literally, it’s obvious. Of course life happens, life can’t not happen, because something must exist for it to happen. Sounds pretty funny when I read that out. But what I mean by this is that when we come to exist (when we are born), we don’t comprehend this consciously, and the same applies for when we die. When our lives start and stop happening, we can’t stop and think about the actuality of it as it’s happened, we can’t stand and treasure the speciality of that moment, it just sort of happens with no regard for us or how we think about it. The odd reality of our lives that we’re thrown into existence and the minute we begin to comprehend that it’s actually happening and what that means, we’re already so far in that it doesn’t matter that it’s started, because we’re so involved in the present. So it takes even longer, usually until our early adulthood, until we finally think ‘how did I get here?’ And of course as we die, we return to a state of non-existence; obviously we can’t think that we’re dead when we’re dead. We don’t ever get the chance to fully realise our existence, we just sort of do it. This isn’t particularly weird because it’s a simple reality, but it’s an interesting thought, and if anything it’s either pretty depressing or quite uplifting. When faced with these facts, we can either descend into existential crisis or accept and wholesomely embrace this natural experience that we call our lives. I’d personally naturally sway towards the first option, but this is what life is all about; learning lessons, solving our philosophical issues with our experiences, even if life is a confusing process that we can’t ever fully comprehend.