A promise to you is a promise to me
How often do we sit back and watch life pass us by? Do we sit and think about the future, or do we dwell on the past? Maybe we look at the past and wish differently for our future. Or, maybe we look so far ahead into our future that we forget to take the lessons of our past with us.
I think that we spend so much time in this purgatory of analysis, that we forget to just live our lives for the present. We forget that we can close our phones and go out somewhere new at the drop of a hat, or that we can stop our stay-at-home movie night mid-way and make a cup of coffee, simply because we can.
Living. That shit is hard. Not because it’s not easy, but because we forget about it.
Now that I’m back in the swing of things with both Honours and lecturing again, I’m reminded about how little time I have for doing just that outside of these responsibilities. Perhaps I took those opportunities for granted when I didn’t take my friends up on their offers, and perhaps I’ve taken my own free time for granted in the moment.
I’m also reminded that responsibilities tend to fill the time we give for them; and so taking that into consideration, I’m making a solemn pledge, out here in the open, to live a little more this year than I have before. I’m not jumping out of planes or riding a horse across a mountain, but maybe an extra burger-and-beer night isn’t such a bad idea in amongst the chaos of the world we live in.
I’ve already made this promise to some friends of mine (over a burger and a beer, no less), and if you’re reading this then I thank you for allowing me the space to say that out loud and for encouraging me to continue doing so.
Here’s to a year of living and learning.
