Yesterday there was a death in my family, and it’s things like this that always get me thinking. It was sudden. One minute he was there, the next he was gone. I wasn’t very close to him but it still hit me pretty hard. And today, while I was in the shower, I starting thinking about the game Final Fantasy IX.
For those of you that aren’t familiar with the game, there are black mages in it. They were created by an evil queen to use as weapons of war. At first the mages are like mindless drones. They have no thought, no free will. They just do what they’re told. But eventually they start to ‘wake’ up. They start to think for themselves. The main characters find a hidden village of these mages, and it’s there, one particular mage talks about ‘stopping’.
When I first played this game, I was a kid. I didn’t fully understand the deeper meaning of the word ‘stop’. I looked at the mages as a mechanical type of thing. Like a clock. A clock runs and when the batteries run out, it stops. But as I got older, I realized they were talking about death. Because death is pretty much the same as a clock stopping, isn’t it? One day we’re running, and the next day we stop.
The mages created that village to get away from the war. But later, when a villain arrives and promises to make their lives longer if they come with him and do his evil bidding, most of them leave. You see, many of the mages didn’t really understand the meaning of stopping. Much like I didn’t when I was a kid. They didn’t realize that the villain was lying to them. They didn’t realize that what really matters the most isn’t how much time we have left, but what we do with the time we’re given.
You can spend that time being miserable and unhappy. You can go about your life looking out for only yourself. Because what does it matter? We’re all going to stop anyways. Or you can spend your time admiring the beauty in the world. You can laugh, you can love, you can dance. If you see someone who needs help, you can offer a hand. You never know, just a simple gesture of kindness can have a big impact on someone’s life. And then maybe that kindness will spread to those that live on after your time stops. Maybe they will use their time to continue on making the world a better place.
Because when it comes down to it, I think that’s what matters most. Our clock is destined to stop. It could be today, it could be tomorrow, it could be 50 years from now. There’s no way to know how much time we have left. Why not use that time for good? Make someone smile today. And when it’s time to stop, you’ll find peace in knowing that you did your best to enjoy the time given to you. And because of that, you will never truly stop. You will live on in the hearts and memories of those whose lives you touched.
-Danielle
Born in Kentucky, Danielle currently resides in central Florida. She enjoys bringing to life a variety of different characters. One could be a lovable goof who never fails to make you laugh, and another might be a bitter, angry person, who hates the world and everything in it. Humor and anger come hand in hand. Happy and sappy? Not her cup of tea. She prefers the broken and the flawed, because as we all know, no one is perfect.
When not writing romance, you’ll find her laughing at her two dogs as they partake in a constant battle with the squirrels in the backyard. Much to the disappointment of the dogs, the squirrels always come out the victor. Danielle also enjoys coming up with way too many story ideas in the shower, rocking out to the 80s, playing video games, and watching horror movies all year long.