I had this moment while watching an episode of Game of Thrones. I won't go in to the details of the scene, but I'll tell you the thought journey I went down. In that moment, I couldn't help but think about how it would be to live life without a calendar and without a mirror.
Since having kids, I can't help but start thinking about our culture and It's expectations. It really feels like life in our current age and current culture has more expectations than ever before. We take a certain amount of life years, and chunk them up with milestones that you're expected to hit. Grade school, middle school, high school, college, career, marriage, house, kids, retirement. Maybe I missed a few steps in there, and maybe some people have added more milestones than the generic ones that I've just listed.
I'm sometimes surprised that this is so ingrained in our psyche, that I've heard many people say things like:
"I thought I'd have kids by the time I was 35."
"I expected to be at a different place in life than I am at age 40."
"I wish I wasn't still living in a starter home at age 23."
"I thought I'd finally be retired at 65 and living the life I wanted."
Watching that scene, I couldn't help but think about living life without a calendar. A life absent the expectations of having achievement x crossed off our lists at a certain time.
And what if we lived without a mirror? Have a life that could go by year by year, decade by decade, without us ever realizing that we were physically aging and the fear that comes along with that.
What if we could live our life without the fear of not accomplishing the things we have been conditioned to think we should, while not having a calendar and an aging face in the mirror counting down the days chasing these things that in the end may not even matter?
A friend of mine recently experienced the death of a close friend. While having a conversation with another friend about that subject, we talked about how hard it can be to accept death. Often times, death is harder on the individuals remaining than it is on the individual who passed. In my opinion, the hardest thing about the death of someone close is eventually accepting how we are spending our time while still alive. I believe there's a regret we have, recognizing we are burning time chasing things that in the end, do not matter. We wish we would have spent more time with the person who passed. We wish we had spent more time with our kids while they were growing up. We wish we didn't mortgage our time like we do. The death of others can sometimes make us think of the regrets we have while living. Most of the time this feeling is fleeting, and we go right back to life as usual.
I talked Monday about living a life on autopilot. You can only live a life like this when it's "comfortable". When you're living a life that continually chooses the path of least resistance. Heading to an established finish line. Checking boxes.
Would there be anything you'd change or want to experience if your life didn't have a calendar or a mirror?
The Strumbellas - Wars
Since having kids, I can't help but start thinking about our culture and It's expectations. It really feels like life in our current age and current culture has more expectations than ever before. We take a certain amount of life years, and chunk them up with milestones that you're expected to hit. Grade school, middle school, high school, college, career, marriage, house, kids, retirement. Maybe I missed a few steps in there, and maybe some people have added more milestones than the generic ones that I've just listed.
I'm sometimes surprised that this is so ingrained in our psyche, that I've heard many people say things like:
"I thought I'd have kids by the time I was 35."
"I expected to be at a different place in life than I am at age 40."
"I wish I wasn't still living in a starter home at age 23."
"I thought I'd finally be retired at 65 and living the life I wanted."
Watching that scene, I couldn't help but think about living life without a calendar. A life absent the expectations of having achievement x crossed off our lists at a certain time.
And what if we lived without a mirror? Have a life that could go by year by year, decade by decade, without us ever realizing that we were physically aging and the fear that comes along with that.
What if we could live our life without the fear of not accomplishing the things we have been conditioned to think we should, while not having a calendar and an aging face in the mirror counting down the days chasing these things that in the end may not even matter?
A friend of mine recently experienced the death of a close friend. While having a conversation with another friend about that subject, we talked about how hard it can be to accept death. Often times, death is harder on the individuals remaining than it is on the individual who passed. In my opinion, the hardest thing about the death of someone close is eventually accepting how we are spending our time while still alive. I believe there's a regret we have, recognizing we are burning time chasing things that in the end, do not matter. We wish we would have spent more time with the person who passed. We wish we had spent more time with our kids while they were growing up. We wish we didn't mortgage our time like we do. The death of others can sometimes make us think of the regrets we have while living. Most of the time this feeling is fleeting, and we go right back to life as usual.
I talked Monday about living a life on autopilot. You can only live a life like this when it's "comfortable". When you're living a life that continually chooses the path of least resistance. Heading to an established finish line. Checking boxes.
Would there be anything you'd change or want to experience if your life didn't have a calendar or a mirror?
The Strumbellas - Wars
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