We are in the habit of saying that it was not in our power to choose the parents who were allotted to us, that they were given to us by chance. But we can choose whose children we would like to be.—Seneca
The paradox of human life is that we live each day knowing we will someday die. If we knew we would never die, that we would live forever, would “live” even be a word? Or, if we knew the exact day and time we would die, would that change how we live?
Maybe with that best-if-used-by date hanging over our heads, we would live backward, truly beginning with the end uppermost in our minds. It would certainly put end to “one day, maybe” wishful thinking. Rather than stare into the wishing well, we would jump in with both feet.
“Live each day as if it were your last,” said the Roman emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius. What if we flipped that? Live each day as if it were your first? What discoveries might await us? What might look brand-new? How much extraordinariness have we come to overlook?
If we landed on this earth just as we are now, and saw how the natural world worked, beheld its many miracles, might every sight line end in hope? Isn’t every day the first day?
Nothing is better fuel than awe and curiosity. Thank you Rob!