Most humans have spent many days, weeks, and maybe even years wishing for more time. It’s a very human thing to long for, but to wish for more time is overlooking one of the most beautiful parts of the human experience.
If you knew your parents and grandparents would be around forever, what urgency would there be to express your love and gratitude for them?
If your friends were always available to spend time with you, what urgency would there be to create connective moments with them?
If you knew you had infinite time, what urgency would there be to courageously follow the whispers of your own heart?
It is our lack of time that makes each moment meaningful.
It is the brevity of life that makes our time here on earth so freaking special.
It is this very limitation that gives us the ability to develop a profound appreciation for the most beautiful moments in time that we merely rent.
A lesson from Achilles:
One of my favorite quotes of all time comes from the movie Troy. In this movie, there is a scene where Brad Pitt playing the warrior Achilles states, “The Gods envy us. They envy us because we’re mortal. Because any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed”. Our looming death is what separates us from the infinite nature of whatever God you may or may not believe in.
This quote shines a light on the nature of warriorship, and the confusion that some might have around what it means to be a warrior. I am staunchly anti-war, yet I look to the strength and teachings of the warrior archetype to guide me in my life, giving me the strength to listen to my heart. As we stay close to our mortality, we allow ourselves to give our full hearts to the task at hand.
The task at hand may be helping out our fellow neighbor, giving a meaningful gift, crying at our altar, or simply allowing ourselves to bask in love and share it with others. The warrior that is aware of the brevity of life can give their full presence to whatever task his or her heart requires. Maintaining awareness of the fragility of life requires the courage of a warrior.
Action:
So, when the urge to wish for more time rears its head again, what can we do?
We can lean into the moments that bring us back to the inherent beauty of life. We can call our grandparents and tell them we love them. We can reach out to that childhood friend and check up on them. We can cry, fully feeling the gravity of the precious moments that we will never experience ever again.
We must not ask for more time, but instead ask for the eyes to see what we already have and the heart to appreciate it in a way that makes time disappear altogether, evaporating almost as if it never happened, with nothing remaining but an imprint on the heart that fundamentally changes who we are.
We can ask for the sand to seep from our hands, going almost unnoticed, because we’re too busy experiencing the magnificent sensation of each grain smoothly rolling off of our aged skin.
When the nostalgia from our most cherished moments of the past begins to show itself and the tears come to pass, let the gates open and allow them to flow just as easily as the river of time itself. For this gateway is the pathway where grief meets praise, a mirror reflecting the beauty of this precious, fragile, finite life.
Movie scene from Troy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMxwhmbF98s