What Do You Know About Life?

Poverty teaches lessons wealth can’t imagine. Failure teaches lessons success can’t understand. Love teaches lessons hatred can’t believe. And kindness teaches lessons cruelty can’t imitate — Annelise Lords.

Growing up in a poor developing country that is often unstable, there is much to learn about from life. Many people suffer because of a lack of knowledge of the life they are living. Many humans don’t take the time to know life and their world. Many are unaware of how they live. These actions continue the pain and agony raging in our world, increasing mental health crisis.

My country has been experiencing water woes for decades. I grew up experiencing many water lock-offs. It was always annoying to walk all over Jamaica to get water. Yes, as children, we had to walk to find water. My mother never stored water. She never planned for water lock-offs. She didn’t plan for life either.

I woke up to no water yesterday morning. Sometimes, they would tell us ahead of time to store water because they were fixing something. We got nothing.

I knew my country, life, and world. I always have water stored. I used my reserved water to cook, clean up, and wash because it didn’t return. I woke up after 2:00 AM to go to the bathroom. After doing my thing, I test the pipe. The water came back. I washed my hands and went back to bed. A voice in me suggested, “Go back and refill the water you used yesterday and catch more.” I obeyed my instincts. It took me almost two hours because the pressure was low.

I went to bed minutes after four and finally dozed off probably an hour later. I was awakened by voices complaining that the water hadn’t returned and her children couldn’t go to school.

I bolted up, rushing to the kitchen, and then something paused me, “water came back this morning.”

A voice outside confirmed, “Water came back a few hours ago.”

“I know, but I was too tired to get up and catch any. I didn’t know it would be gone in a few hours,” the complainant said.

“But this is how they do it many times in the past so other areas can get water too,” someone said.

“My kids need to get to school, plus Paula has a job interview in a few hours and must be there on time. Can I have some of yours?”

“You mean with all of the water hell this country has been raging in for years, you don’t store water?” Anger erupted in the person she was talking to.

“I never had to. There is a pipe down the street, and the water never goes away,” she defends her unplanned decision.

“So why are you here?”

“No water is coming from it,” she notified.

“Do you realize what messages you send your children when you don’t plan for anything?”

“Look,” her anger defends. “It’s just water!”

A voice laughed, then notified, “To you, it is. It’s a precious mineral to me, and I am not sharing it with you.”

“But my son has an important exam today, and he needs to get to school,” she pleads.

“See what happens when you don’t plan. How could you have children and don’t plan?” More anger erupted. “You lived here all of your life. Opportunities usually don’t rebound here. So when it comes, you should grab it and use it!”

“Again, it’s only water,” she stupidly said.

“Then go and buy some.”

“The shops aren’t open yet, and my kids have to leave soon,” she pleaded. “My children’s life and future depends on this!”

See the power of ‘it’s only water.’ Water is vital to our bodies, like air.

See how a lack of planning and knowledge of life, living, and your world can disable opportunities in a country where humans must create their own. A country where opportunities do not rebound!

My children are raised to believe that they only have one chance. That way, no opportunity is taken for granted, and life is never taken for granted. From what goes on in my country, along with poverty, nothing is taken for granted.

Life owes me nothing, but I owe life everything. So I take the time to know Life! — Annelise Lords.

Knowing life is the safest, healthiest, and most sensible way to live and survive in this cruel world, with the intention of adding nothing negative to it that would prolong the suffering of humanity.

If your heart could speak, what would it say?

What if all of humanity didn’t take life for granted and took the time to know life, living, and their world?

Do you know life?

Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoyed it.