A countdown for the remainder of the year appeared on the news this morning counting down the days until Thanksgiving, the first day of winter, Christmas, and New Years Day. It said there were 48 days left before 2019. It’s crazy to me that we are getting that close to 2020!
It made me think about all the resolutions I was beginning to think of at this time a year ago — eat healthy, work out, read more, less screen time, etc.. And, also made me think about how I didn’t really achieve any of those, well at least like I had hoped to.
With all that said, I began thinking of what I wanted to achieve in 2019 and then thought to myself, why do I need to wait until 2019 to begin anything? One of my favorite artists is The Rocket Summer and in his song “Cars and the Pixies” he asks one of the most poignant questions that still lives with me almost seven years after the release of the song…
Who says it has to be the New Year to start a New Year?
Whenever we, at Bridges, are out with an information table people avoid us and our banner with the tagline “Resources for End-of-Life Realities,” but really just as much as we want to talk about death, we also want to talk about living life with an emphasis on living. We all will face an end to our lives at some point, for some it unfortunately is much earlier than others but it doesn’t appear that we live with that finite nature in mind. We watch the movies (e.g. The Bucket List, The Last Holiday, etc.) and feel inspired but really the only thing that seems to really remind people that they have a limited time on earth and should embrace it is experiencing the death of a close friend or loved one.
So what would happen if you did something today that sparked a little fear in you? Ask that person out on a date. Call a relative you haven’t talked to in a long time. Plan that trip you’ve been wanting to go on. Watch the sunset with your own eyes (and not through your phone). Visit the grandkids. Ask for help.
There are a million things I can list here for you but you know what you can do to live life a little more fully today, tomorrow, and every day after. Because, remember, who says it has to be a New Year to start a New Year?
Be sure to check out our Resources, including our Living Life Fully Toolkit!