Alive or Dead?

When you realise you're going to die, you value your time as the precious and non-renewable resource that it is.

Have you ever occupied that space where the raw and naked beauty of life felt so palpable that all the unimportant stuff just dropped away, even for just a moment?

Where life gave you something that felt like it was going to break you but afterwards you realised that it hadn't broken you.....but it had broken you open? The death of a loved one. A health crisis - yours or someone close to you. A time where you came face to face with how short and precious this life is?

You may have looked around you at all the people who were busy-being-busy and wondered how they could possibly just carry on as though everything was normal when you had come up across the uncomfortable truth that our time here is limited.

But then busy-being-busy tasks started creeping up on you again. The dishwasher needed to be repaired. A dentist appointment needed to be made. The car registration needed to be renewed. The pain and grief lessened, but so did that keen awareness of how precious time is. You accidentally slipped back into thinking that you had all the time in the world to do the things that mattered most to you.

But the truth is, none of us will be getting out of here alive. Not a single one of us.

Sit with that for a moment. What does it bring up for you? What does it make you want to do differently this year?

It doesn't have to be big. And yes, the dishwasher will still need to be repaired and the dentist appointments will still need to be made. But if you could make just one tiny change to the way you spend your 24 hours today, what would it be?

Go do that thing.