Everything is temporary

Everything is temporary...

Perhaps that is exactly what makes life so precious.

The older I get, the more I realize that everything is temporary. People, relationships, friendships, jobs, homes, our health, even the versions of ourselves we once knew so well. Nothing is promised to stay.

Maybe it is the years I have spent working alongside people at the end of life. Maybe it is watching children leave this world far too soon, or realizing that at 62, I have already lived longer than my parents, my sister, and my brother were given. Whatever it is, I am beginning to understand just how precious time really is.

And I find myself wondering how differently I might have lived if I had understood this sooner.

Would I have been less angry when relationships ended? Less concerned with who was right or wrong? Would I have spent less time holding grudges, looking for flaws, or revisiting disappointments? Perhaps I would have spent more time appreciating what I had while I had it.

I am learning that something doesn't have to last forever to have been meaningful. A friendship can end and still have been beautiful. A relationship can change and still have mattered. A chapter can close without making the entire story a disappointment.

I don't want to spend the time I have left looking backward at what went wrong. I want to remember what went right. I want to laugh more, love more, be patient, hold fewer grudges, and stop allowing yesterday's disappointments to steal today's happiness.

Because one day, the ordinary moments we barely notice will be the memories we wish we could revisit.

Maybe that is what death teaches us. Not to live in fear of losing everything, but to recognize the value of what we have while it is here.

I don't know how much time I have left. None of us does. But I know I want to spend mine differently. Less time holding on to what hurt me, and more time appreciating what brought me joy.

Everything is temporary.

So, while we are here, let's not spend so much time worrying about what might end that we forget to enjoy what hasn't.

xo

Gabby