How quickly the glory passeth!

About twelve days ago, one of my very close cousins had his wedding in England.  I did not go because I am trying to limit my vocations/money spending and also because I do not seem to do so well when it comes to large crowds (which Punjabis in England seem to create).  Long live introverts!

Now, I do not know how other cultures celebrate their weddings but Punjabi people go all out for a wedding. The planning starts a year before and the actual week of the wedding is filled with events on every single day.  I will not go into depth on these ceremonies but the traditions are long and can be quite complex to the outsider.   The culmination happens with the wedding itself and the reception afterwards.

I was contemplating on a person who would attend the wedding.  How he must have prepared for the wedding a year before.  How he choose what he was going to wear on each of the days.  On what he was going to say to woo the hearts of those Punjabi honeys at the parties.  

And now?  Now what?  It is all over.  The excitement has passed.  The many words that were spoken have ceased to enter the vacuous ears of many.  How quickly the glory passeth!  I do not write this to tell you not to attend weddings. Of course not!  You should definitely attend events that are worthy of your attendance. What I am saying is that remember how it all passes.  How the beautiful decorations will one day be unrecognizable the midst of dust.  How those sublime dresses will one day find their way in the back of a closet never to be seen again.  How our very existence on this earth will pass.

Also, if you are a fellow introvert like myself and you feel like you are missing what life is offering you because you miss out on events, remember that it really does not matter at the end.  Your daily schedule may simply consist of working, praying, reading, sleeping and that may be it but that is all that you need.  Who cares what your friend Amanda is doing and how she posts her party pictures on Facebook.  Don't you see that it all passes? 

"Soon you'll be ashes or bones. A mere name at most—and even that is just a sound, an echo. The things we want in life are empty, stale, trivial." 

-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations