Life's Slot Machine

Let's play a game! The LIFE'S SLOT MACHINE game!

First, replace each slot with the people in your life. Slot#1 can be your dad. Slot#2 can be your mom. Slot#3 is your spouse. Slot#4 is your child. Slot #5 is your boss. Slot#6 is your best friend. Slot#7 is your next friend. And so on, and so on. You decide. The number of slots are infinity. The slots represent each people that have ever come to your life, still in your life, and possibly will appear in your life later. And the last slot is you.

In this game, not all slots will be stopping at the same time. Some slots will stop first. some will stop later. Some will slow down. Some will spin faster. Some will stop temporarily, but re-spinned again. Some will stop for good. Some will never stop.

Since you are the last slot, the game will always keep spinning. But you can't control when each slot will stop. The time the slot start spinning represents the time they start appear in your life.

The time the slot stopped represents the time they are out of your life. Whether is due to death, loss of contact, or permanent goodbye caused by unresolved conflict. If it's due to death, obviously the slot will stop for good. If that person still alive, there's a possibility that the slot will re-spin again.

So here's my result:

Slot #1 is my dad. Start: The day I born. Stop: The day he died.

Slot #2 is my friend A. Start: The day we met in kindergarten. Stop: The day we graduate high school. Start again: The day we met on Facebook, 10 years later! Till now!

Slot #3 is my coworker B. Start: The day we met in office cafetaria on date xx/xx/20xx. Stop: The day he got relocated to East coast on this date xx/xx/20xx. Start: The day we reconnect via LinkedIn.

Slot #4 is cousin C. Start: The day she was born. No stop since we still in touch.

And so on, and so on. I have a long list and it's probably wise to not list them one by one here. But I know for sure, the last slot is myself. Start: The day I born. Stop: The day I die.

Try this exercise on a piece of paper. And list everyone. You'll see a pattern here. Some relationship ends. Some doesn't end. Some is re-lived. Some re-lived to be lost again.

The point of this game is, that no matter what happen, you as the last slot are still spinning. There will be people that eventually will be part of your history, and they remain in the past. They will be people that will come and make new history with you. As long as you still "spinning" aka alive, you won't run out of list of "slots" (aka people) to share this happy life with. And sometimes surprisingly, some people that out of touch do come back! Whether because there was a crisis in your life, or fate met the both of you again, you'll get reconnected and then their slots start spinning again.

I need to accept that there will be some people that will never come back to my life anymore. Sad, but it's life. It is what it is. It's not what it has been. It's not what it will be. It is what it is.

But the good news is, just because we lost some people who hold near and dear to us, doesn't mean that life is ended. We must still continue to do what we supposed to do in this world. Our purpose. Because life is big. It's not just about people. It's not just about a relationship. It's everything! Family, home, work, health, finances, leisure, love & the matter of the heart, and everything in between. Just because one aspect of our life is unpleasant to us now, doesn't mean that we have to throw everything away. There's still good things in this world. Not all is lost.

While I'm grieving for some people that I've lost recently, I am also at peace knowing that God will take care of them better than the way I take care of them. I just have to trust in Him. Knowing that He sees everything and He knows all. He will arrange the best for each of us, His children. So my job is to let go everything that need to be let go. And keep walking towards my future. Until my slot stop spinning for good.