So often do you hear the saying “life is short” and so often do you see people in this modern age rushing around like mad things trying to keep up with the pace of the ticking clock. The saying is true there is no doubt about it and in the grand scheme of the Earth’s existence, each individual tiny speck of life is absolutely minuscule. However, it’s establishing when and when not to take this so literally, when it can come in useful and when it needs to be put aside.
What I am trying to express, and I suppose it’s a long winded way of acknowledging the truth within the statement, is that too often we panic about getting everything right. We stress over what people will think and worry about things that won’t matter in a few years time. We fail to slow down and appreciate what we have in front of us. We fail to notice the beauty outside our window, or the small good things that happen every day because we’re busy focusing too far ahead and rushing through this crazy thing that we call life.
A day spent fretting about whether you’re doing the right thing, living the right way, being the correct version of yourself for all situations, that is when the saying can be taken off the shelf and considered. This is when it is true. When you leave a social situation and spend the whole day worrying that you said the wrong thing, that you offended someone and that your hair looked a mess. This is when you need to consider what is worth dedicating time to for worry and what needs to be given the shove because life is short.
While you sit and worry about things that cannot be changed like what the future holds, that’s when it can be disregarded for the time being. Nobody knows and there is no point attempting to figure it out, you just need to remain calm. You can brush it aside when you’re putting pressure on yourself constantly to fit the mold, to find a secure career of a lifetime, to find a partner, to settle, to do it all by the book and to do it all by the ripe age of twenty-five. Life may be short, but time isn’t quite that pressing and life doesn’t have to be so much of a race. Fear not, you do have time.
Too often do we visit someone’s house and think about how much we have to do the next day, failing to love the moment that we’re currently in, enjoying being alive surrounded by fabulous people. Too often we speedily get out of a car and rush home to get on with our lengthy list, forgetting to notice the luscious smell of a household cooking a roast dinner on a Sunday lunchtime, dismissing the fact that the walk home is through a lovely country village. Too often we fill up our time with so much stuff that we can’t fit in moments to stop, to slow down and to admire everything with all that we have.
It’s sometimes not until you hear some startling news, something to shake things up a bit, to put your troubles into perspective when you realise just how lucky we are. You rarely hear people say that, how lucky we are. Slow down, put the brakes on. Life may be short but it’ll seem a lot shorter if you continue to rush around, panicking, failing to notice the beauty both in the natural world and in the people we love all around us every single day.
Remember this next time you’re panicking, worrying about timelines and limits, looking at everyone else, wanting to keep up and trying to get everything done but not having enough hours in the day to do so. Take a step back, relax and know that though life is short, there is always time to cherish and appreciate all that it contains and just be happy in that one tiny moment. In the chaos of life, everybody needs a break, allow for this, always and remember in your snippet of worry, there is always a perspective in which it can be placed.