Age, The Brevity of Life, and the Passing of Time
It happened again this morning.
I woke up thinking about my age, the brevity of life, and the seemingly accelerating pace of the passing of time.
It seems when I have these episodes, it’s always when first waking up in the morning and, admittedly, I always feel a wave of anxiety. Frothing about in that wave are thoughts like…
“There’s so much I still want to experience and accomplish.”
"I'm so far behind where I thought I'd be at this age."
“The strongest, healthiest years of my life are likely already behind me.”
“Both of my parents died in their early 70’s and I’m less than 16 years away from that decade of life which means I’m less than six years away from what could be my final decade to accomplish and experience everything.”
“If I’d only done things much differently in my 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, perhaps I wouldn’t be having this anxiety in my 50's.”
“Can I really face what’s going to happen to me physically and mentally in the rapidly approaching future?”
“I’ll have no children, or grandchildren at my bedside when I take my last breath.”
There’s nothing I can do about the passing of time.
There’s nothing I can do about the previous 5 1/2 decades. They’re done and here I am.
There’s no way to stop the failing of my body and mind. At best, I can postpone it with better habits.
The only healthy way for me to emerge from those early morning waves of anxiety is to enter the day determined to spend the next 24 hours living and loving fully, laughing much, finding and embracing the beauty and magic all around me, using words like "frothing," and showing kindness to everyone I encounter.
Let’s make our lives, in this moment, extraordinary and then wake up tomorrow and do it all over again.