This single question may help you during lockdown: what if I do not wake up tomorrow?

For so many times, we can feel that life is just plain and full of routine; and the current lockdown may well add plenty more of boredom to our daily routine. And yet, if we start to ask this question, “what if I do not wake up tomorrow?”, then we may suddenly realise that life is truly a miracle and each and every minute of it is worth treasuring and celebrating. Knowing that many people do not wake up tomorrow gives us the reason to live today and do so to the fullest enjoyment.

As Buddha notes, everything is impermanent such as your project, your homework, your research, your money, your job, your name, and your investment. If you do not wake up tomorrow, none of those things matter to you; what matters to you is today and now and indeed how you choose to live and enjoy life right now. Depending on yourself, life can either be plain or you can make it magnificent, and indeed, you can create meaning and significance out of a meaningless life. Shakespeare compares life to a garden; just as what shall become of the garden is entirely up to the gardener, so you can sow the seeds and reap glory.

Take a stroll by a different route and you are certain to happen upon beautiful gardens and landscapes. Cook a meal by a new recipe or by your own idea and you are sure to be amazed by your potential and of course by the wonderful taste you and your family have never experienced before. Read an autobiography of any person and you will discover a different way of living and refresh your mind. Try your hand at a new skill and you will be wowed by your own creativity and capability…

If you observe the basket weaver, isn’t that looking boring at first blush, and yet, if you sit down and get willow branches sorted and prepared and start to weave something you have in mind, you suddenly feel, “wow, that requires a hell lot of skills of all sort!” Kicking yourself off and Getting into it, you feel like you are no different from Elon Musk or Bill Gates in what you do — you learn, you conquer and you enjoy and have fun. That’s that, and that is life, that is purpose of life and that is what matters today. You no longer need a philosopher to tell you what is the purpose of life. You suddenly rise above the routine and the media coverage of sort of celebrities and scandals and junkies is no longer relevant to you, indeed, they were never relevant to you.

So, who cares about tomorrow; when tomorrow comes if it comes, go face it and enjoy it, but do not cross the bridge until you come to it. Life is genuinely short, and the junk media tells you that the young people complain that the lockdown has wasted their youth. Life is in one’s own hand; it is not the lockdown that wastes it, rather, it is they that can waste it. Before they finish their complaints, chances are that some do not wake up tomorrow, and their lives are truly wasted in complaining.

That inspiring book is to be read, why wait until the lockdown is over? That love and kindness is to be shown to people, why wait until tomorrow? That delicacy can be created and enjoyed today, why wait until the lockdown is over? That garden can be transformed today, why wait until tomorrow? Tomorrow may not come, the lockdown may not be over, and yet, neither matters; you smile to yourself at the end of the day, saying, “I cooked and enjoyed a great meal today with my family!” or “I tried my hand at painting and painted the most colourful rainbow in my whole life!” That’s it!

We do not have Musk’s money, and yet, we can enjoy a great life today, just as he may choose to do so. We do not have Trump’s power, and yet, we can empower ourselves and enjoy a great life today, just as he may choose to do so. We do not have that pop star’s voice, and yet we can have the most smoothing music at fingertip and enjoy a great life today, just as she may choose to do so. No one knows who wakes up tomorrow; if we enjoy a great day today, we will have achieved the greatest victory in the whole evolutionary history of our short life.