If you live a typical human lifespan, it’s easy to think that you have decades left. But even if we get to grow very old, life as we know it right now has a shorter shelf life. People, places, routines change like there are stagehands in all black sneaking away set pieces and rolling in others. Can’t take those for granted.
Several years ago, the internet went wild over a claim that your body’s cells replace themselves every seven years. The science on that isn’t quite precise, but it doesn’t need to be to make the point that a few years can change nearly everything. In my life, I’ve found it only takes two years for life to start looking really, really different. Two years for its plot lines to resolve and morph, for characters to enter and exit, for entire settings to shift.
In order to live every day like it’s your last, you don’t need to imagine all these scenarios of sudden death. Just accept the fact that life constantly rearranges.
This weekend, I’ve been watching my kids play, blown away by their curiosity and spirit. So much personality has emerged in the past year, and it’s kind of a sobering thought to think that at the end of this year, in many ways they’ll be different kids than the ones I have now. This version of my life will be replaced with something else. But it was also a fun weekend, just getting to play the way they play and put all other thoughts on the shelf.
If I make it to the end of this year and look back on a year that went slowly, where I was able to take it all in, that'll be good enough.
Shorter Cycles
