In six days I will be 38 years year old. In my last article, I wrote about birthday wishes. I wrote about wanting nothing. I wrote about wanting everything. I wrote about how in the end, the one thing we should want, we will never receive (time).
No matter how hard we blow out those birthday candles or how badly we wish it into existence; we are not getting more time added to life. We are not going back in time, either. And so, we can always (and only) do what we can, with the time we have in the present.
There is never a moment more important than the present. The past is done. It’s gone. It’s over with. That birthday gift you never got at age 8 isn’t going to show up now. The birthday socks you got at age 18 won’t turn into a paintball gun. The hair you didn’t have at age 28 isn’t growing suddenly at age 38.
In regards to the future, it’s always out of reach. It’s never realized. It’s always the close-but-no-cigar moment. The future wishes or goals or wants in life will never happen without being in the present. When that future happens and is here, it isn’t the past. It isn’t the future, it’s the present.
My birthday is September 20th. I am wishing for a day of golf, seeing my friends, and family, and being able to end the night with my fiancee. Oh yeah, and Splatoon 3 for Nintendo Switch. In six days, that future will become reality. It will be my present. I had better enjoy it for all that I can, because on September 21, that day will have come and gone. It will be just another day in the past.
There will never be a more opportune moment or time of the day to enjoy what you have than right now. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow. Today. Like, right now, at this exact moment, today. The present.
Looking forward to the future? I’m just trying to enjoy the present. This gift of life, the one we currently have, is my birthday present.
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Life, Death, and Everything In Between. 