You’d think we’d further question our own mortality attending the funeral of a child or visiting an incoherent spouse in the nursing home. Seems like a no-brainer: life is short, so make the most of it. The problem is, life happens so fast and when one company merger butts up to the finality of a divorce, which is wedged in between the school acceptance letter your child has been waiting for and the incarceration of a loved one, you don’t always have the time to acknowledge the fragility of human life.
You don’t notice the emergent yellow buds on the half-yearly dormant tree in your yard. You don’t hear the birds chirping as you blow your horn for the car in front of you to “move it buddy!” And you certainly don’t acknowledge your child’s sheer bliss over wearing shorts for the first time since spring has started to bloom. These snippets of animation are here and then they’ll be gone.
Sometimes it takes an external slap in the face to remind us to pay attention: an associate you haven’t seen in a few years is in a near-fatal accident and has been rehabilitating, not easily, for months. You decide to join that softball team and utilize your legs while you have them at your disposal. Or you attend a 50-year-anniversary party for an old couple and decide to re-devote your dwindling affection toward your spouse of five years.
Do what you want, there’s no right or wrong way to live. But just don’t let the days, weeks, or years pass you by without notice. Pay attention, as the scenes from your life and others’ are playing right in front of you, in all their splendor and wretchedness, and they won’t last forever. You may live to be 19 or 90. The years don’t matter, but the moments do. Slow down and take stock of your senses and your interactions. Appreciate the beauty and ugliness alike today.
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