It’s the beginning of a new year and a time when most people pause to look back over the past year and what they want to be different in a new year. Like most, I’m no different and since the last week of 2016 I’ve been thinking about how I want to make 2017 my best year ever. The image above this message grabbed my attention when I saw this on a post by one of my mentees. It immediately struck a chord within me and I knew there was a story for me to share this very message and where I am in life right now. WOW!
Yes, “wow” is the utterance of emotion this image calls forth. For years I have stated, shared, proclaimed or lamented that “life is short.” What makes life seem short? When I think about as a child how I could not wait to for time to pass I now realize how juvenile a wish to hold. But that is what children do. The often recounted phrases like, “are we there yet?’ and “is five minutes over now?” speak to the impatience of living life in its own time. I can now look back and realize the beginnings of rushing life forward. Rushing through youth, the necessary phase of life leading into adulthood set the stage for the mindset that life is short.
Living life in the now in pursuit of one’s passion can make life seem short. When I look back over my life for the past two decades it’s hard to believe how much time has gone by. In the big scheme of things, life is short and there’s little time to waste on anything. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on occasion spoke of the fierce urgency of now. He spoke of our need to act now for “vigorous and positive action,” for civil rights. In the short life lived he died in pursuit of his passion. Today, January 15th is his birthday, he would have been 88 years old.
Life is short. I will spend the rest of my days of this short life pursuing with passion that which matters most to me.