33%ASLEEP

It’s been four hours and forty five minutes since I closed my eyes, nodding off to the TV, and then waking to my three year old crying from her room.

Let’s call today 19.7% asleep.

But for those of you without small kids, the title above will remain apropos.

I stumbled on to this article above the other day and was floored by it.

https://www.dreams.co.uk/sleep-matters-club/your-life-in-numbers-infographic

I think intrinsically we all know that our lives are somewhat set on autopilot the vast majority of the time and that there are things that we do that are more cruise control than stick shift.

Eat, go to the grocery store, do the dishes, mow the lawn.

The must do’s.

Like so many things we think it about, it’s a blessing and a curse to know it.

We know it…and knowledge is power…so…

Just because you know something though, doesn’t make it sting less.

It is fully within the realm of possibility that of your time here on Earth, you are going to have just 67% of your life to work with.

Really this should be titled—Oh shit…67%?!

We have to sleep.

But what about the rest?

If we are giving ourselves til 80 (rounding up gently from the article), then we are only here for 53.6 years.

53.6.

To type the number bothers me.

It gives me anxiety.

Unless…

Unless, I embrace it.

Not hug it like someone you were sort of friends with in high school and haven’t seen in twenty years. 

Weird half hugs that happen in grocery stores.

No.

Hug it, like it matters.

Like someone just got out of the hospital from being on death’s door.

53.6

I’m not going to do the exercise of backing out all the other crap that sucks our time, (I’m looking at you work), but we all know what they are.

This is about challenging you to not let one day go by.

Not one.

I used to think that a bad day was just that. A write off, like some sort of perverse tax deduction, on the 1040 of your life.

I thought unproductive days spent bitching and moaning and complaining were like that. 

If I was aware, awake, and really paying attention when I was younger, I sure as shit would have paid more mind to what I did with the most precious resource I had.

But…better late than never.

And that’s a true statement.

Maybe the truest ever uttered.

Even if we haven’t done something or started, we can still do it.

Always.

And it’s never going to be a waste.

That means that today presents an opportunity unlike any other that has come before it because, and not to repeat myself here, knowledge is power. 

When we know a thing, we can confront it.

I hate snakes.

With a fiery passion.

But…the more I have learned about them, the more comfortable I have become when I see them.

I’m not going to run up and pet one, or try to see if I can make a friend, but I’m also not going to shriek and run, (probably).

I know more about them now, so I can look at them and acknowledge them for who they are.

I’m on the back half of my 53.6 which leaves me with no excuses.

I can’t say that I’m going to wait to start something new.

I can’t say that I have plenty of time left.

I can’t, because I don’t.

And because I know that, I have the ultimate gift of freedom.

EO- Live a Life Worth Watching