Mindset
It All Fades Away
“Time slips through our hands like grains of sand, never to return. Those who use time wisely from an early age are rewarded with rich, productive, and satisfying lives.”
– Robin S. Sharma
When I walk on the beach each day while away on vacation I am reminded of how time is fleeting.
You move along the beach, creating each footprint, a legacy statement of the moment you were once there, when you turn around, you see the many tracks you have created.
But just as in life, those tracks are quickly washed over by waves, and for an instant they become less visible, becoming more and more faded with each passing wave.
Everything we do will fade away in time. For some who create in the arts and literature, there can be a legacy of thought or story.
We remember the music of our youth, the Michael Jackson’s of the moment, we recall how fantastic they once were.
We can see the amazing feats of physical prowess expressed by our sports heroes. Because of film and television, we can even revisit these moments like they were yesterday.
For those who create businesses or brands, perhaps the act of your creation remains in the memory of those who continue to use or explore your invention. Edison’s light bulb or Ford’s automobile.
Perhaps we can even remember more than just the name or the impact the person created, and by reading an autobiography, we can learn more about their life.
But these are all the big things, the incredible things, what about the simple things? The simple acts of kindness, or moments of deliberation. The decisions made, and the turns taken. Most of this gets lost.
Just like each footprint in the sand.
The truth is most of us aren’t Einstein or Ali, we are just regular folk doing regular things, and even many of those who at the moment seem larger than life, are truly just as forgotten as we will once be.
The message is in the moment. The purpose in the instant. There is no long-term.
So the more we get out of our head about what could or might be, and just recognize that what is now is all there is, that becomes the moment we are set free.
Plan and forecast, and look towards the future, this is all great and worth doing. But focus your energy on what is now, not what might one day be. The steps you take today will be faded and forgotten tomorrow.
None of us is in charge of how this all will end. I watched my mother’s final days a year ago, and what she experienced I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. We don’t get to write the script.
New friends of ours on our recent vacation told us of a moment they both almost drowned on vacation. The parents of three young boys could see each other struggling in the water separated by 50 meters of water, unable to assist one another.
The father luckily found purchase on a sandbar, while all he could do was watch his wife helpless and slowly sinking beneath the surface. As luck would have it, a stranger with water experience and the right equipment saved her life.
The father confided that he wanted to try to swim to her, but his mind told him they couldn’t leave their boys without parents and it paralyzed him. I can’t imagine this moment. But moments like this shape and reshape our lives. They are a reminder that life is not guaranteed.
So, feel the sand under your feet at each step, recognize that each one is special, and yet each is simply a step. None are guaranteed, and most will be forgotten.
It all fades away one day.
Be grateful for what you have, not for what you have not.
