“I must be a mermaid, Rango. I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living.”

Anais Nin

New year, and need to constantly grow and not waste time.  Time is the most precious commodity we have and shallow living is a waste of time; time we can never reclaim.

This has been a thought-provoking year so far and one of constant questioning on how should I spend my time.  How do I most effectively allocate time in various relationships; how much effort and so forth. The guiding foundation to my life has always been “To thyself be true,”  don’t betray yourself.  And of course we have all betrayed ourselves, maybe grown from it but ultimately we will never get back the time wasted.

The past seven months have not been easy due to the loss of my dogs (old age).  One dog was 17.5 and the other 16.  One was a gradual decline and the other was a sudden unexpected death.  These dogs have been there for me, consistently for everything.  I knew they were not immortal but their presence is beyond being truly missed.  The connection some humans have with their dogs are beyond words. And that time was well spent….

But their recent death has mortality blatantly staring at me daily.  I wake up, they are not there, I am often alone in my house and they are just not there.  For the past 7 months it has been a constant reminder that everyone around me is mortal and so am I. Tomorrow is my father’s birthday. Gone for some many years but a constant reminder of loss and mortality. So what does this mean and how can I make it fruitful instead of deep sorrow and loss?

Back to time and living.  I make extra effort now to live. If I have a free night, I will force myself to go out and live and experience life.  Yes, we all need time to binge watch some new series (I have my own favorites), but we have to be mindful not to overdo it and push ourselves to live.  And if nobody wants to share the experiences, push ourselves to go do it anyways.  Do something new and experience something new.  Make sure that those you spend time with truly value you and the time you spend with them and just keep moving forward; don’t stagnate. And with that thought, time to get going for the day and live, just live.

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”

Albert Einstein’s life advice in a letter to his son Eduard on 5 February 1930