By Scott Campsall
Writer and philosopher Sam Harris once said, “No matter how many times you do something, there will come a day when you do it for the last time.”
I am finding that this is becoming a more powerful statement as I age.
I may not realize it when it’s happening, but one day will be the last one that I put on my dogi, teach or participate in a class. One day will be the last one that I hug a loved one or even just tell them that I love them. Whether we want to admit it or not, there are specific windows of time that can easily slip away if we’re not paying attention.
All of us are dying. This means that even the physically fittest of us are slowly becoming unhealthy. Each day is important as it relates to how much time we have left. What we do with each minute has an impact on what happens with our future and how we look back at our past.
Everyone realizes this, but we still have two opposite forces that conflict and yet also work together to suck our life away. On one hand, our society likes to idolize the notion that working hard or being busy is a good thing. Like having a stressful life is a badge of honour. On the other, we seem to have time for the useless things that we can disguise in our mind as “worthy leisure activities”. Things like watching television or scrolling social media sites.
Somewhere in the middle, we must find balance and make the most of our time so when the last day comes, we don’t look back and regret even a second that we were given.
One day, will be the last one. How are you spending the days before that one arrives?