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Bookmarks

Bookmarks, the conventional kind. The one sandwiched between what you have read and what you haven’t. A simple little thing, and yet this simple thing provides an instant memory aid - telling you where have you stopped in the story.

It doesn’t tell you why did you stop there in the first place. But it may give you a clue if you read the pages holding your bookmark. Your may have reached your stop, and you have to get off the bus. You may have to think about what was said in the previous chapter / paragraph / sentence. You may be tired. Your dog might require feeding. YOU might require feeding. Someone else needs your attention. You are just bored with the book.

Bookmarks are there to cope with all these reasons, and more. The name has now evolved to mean a link on the internet - a website which you would like to remember and possibly come back to. The various reasons are quite similar to having a conventional bookmark between book pages. A special trait about websites is that they might be updated, hence why you want to revisit them.

So, bookmarks are quite a useful thing, if you read a book, or if you use the internet, which i’ll assume you do since you are reading this now! Bookmarks are there to let you have one less thing to remember. Bookmarks are there to tell you that the place you stop is probably quite important, which means it’s worth a revisit.

In life, we also need bookmarks. We need these sign posts to tell us where we are, where have we been, and where we want to be. These bookmarks in life are quite important because with them, we can take a breather and reflect on the past, the present and use these bookmarks as a guide for the future.

These bookmarks are not meant to be pit stops - where you have to race through life, and only stop for fuel and a change of tyres. These bookmarks are placed consciously by you and you alone. You choose which chapter of your life that you want to bookmark. You choose what’s most important to you to bookmark. You don’t choose your pit stops.

Your life story is unfolding as you read this. It just flows whether you are aware of it or not. It just carries on whether you want it to or not. The challenge is not to stop the flow. It’s a futile exercise. The challenge is to know where to place your bookmarks. Place them where you think it’s important to you, keeping in mind that importance may change as you move further into your life story.

Revisit your bookmarks now and again. Reflect on them. Try to remember why you bookmarked them in the first place. You will need them to write your own future. The main difference between placing a bookmark in a book and placing a bookmark in your life story is that you are the author of your life story. So bookmark wisely, your remaining life story depends on them.

© 2008 shang lee . com.