Over the past while and over several articles I have spoken about time, gratitude and when I coach, I focus a lot on the present moment and what magic can be found in the now. I find mindfulness an important practice and love the teachings of meditation and being in the moment. Its all great.
This weekend I was thinking about life, not in the existential kind of way but just reflecting and contemplating the shortness of it. The topic I have avoided is the current pandemic, but its time to hold a mirror up to myself at some point and face things head on. I do not know when it will end, I don’t know who will be next, I don’t know what the future looks like and I certainly don’t know how to fix any of it. But I do know this for sure:
This life is indeed short
It’s a blink, I turned 48 this year, I joke about being 50 and looking forward to it, I remember joking about being 40 and looking forward to it, now I wonder why I don’t just enjoy where I am now and just be. It’s because I am always racing to the next goal and I never stop and live in the moment. There has always had to be something better, bigger, brighter, and more lovely to chase- once I have it in my grasp, I lose interest and look for the next thing. How fickle, how insincere, and how unauthentic a way to live.
A friend texted me today to just say Hi, I was so happy to hear from her, it made me take a beat and appreciate that moment, that appreciation and it inspired me to pay it forward and let someone else know that I appreciate them. What an amazing blessing it is to have these people in my (short) life.
Eat the cake
Do it, I have a saying that I tell everyone who will hear “life is too short to life or love half-heartedly”, do it all with everything or not at all. I know I sound like a hedonist but that’s just the mood I am in right now, not only in the pursuit of pleasure, but for the lust of living, of tasting, of feeling, of vulnerability, of bravery, of appreciation and of moments. Seek out the people who make you feel like sunshine, eat food that taste like it was made by an Italian nona with all the love she has, drive a car that feels like every German engineer personally touched every part of it and love someone like you would recognise them by the beat of their heart in a crowded room. Do these things at least once in your life, then eat that cake.
You can sit back on your porch one day watching your grandchildren on dogs playing on the beach with your best book and best friend next to you and say “of all the things I have gained I have wonderful memories, enriched relationships, great friends, and a place on this planet to call my own” that’s my plan anyway.
And to end off cheesy. LIVE. LOVE and LAUGH with every fibre of who you are. Else what’s the point?