What You Learn About Life Over Time
Laughing, crying, jumping, stumbling, saying goodbye, coming back, waiting, dealing with life, falling in love, eating chocolate, smelling perfume, making mistakes, fixing them, writing a love letter, healing a broken heart, listening to your favorite song, being surprised, getting angry, thinking, breathing…
We could go on and on, giving free reign to our imagination and thinking about everything that’s worthwhile and joyful. But more than anything, this article is a wish. A wish that you live each day of your life fully.
Every day should give us goosebumps. We should sing, dance, talk, and shout. But too often, we turn into robots, concerned more with our busy schedules than filling our lives with color.
Life is fleeting, and we too often waste it
Don’t deceive yourself; you don’t need to have the best and latest product off the market, take the most expensive trip, be resoundingly successful, or have a perfectly sculpted, plastic surgery body. Especially when you reach a certain age, it just doesn’t matter as much anymore. But unfortunately, it takes us too long to realize this.
Like John Lennon once said, “life is what happens while you’re making other plans.” We pretend like our time isn’t limited, when in reality, time is the most finite thing in the world, and it always reaches its end.
We are full of constant doubt. We get up every day thinking we have an eternity to understand what it means to be fulfilled and to take another step towards our goals.
We forget that the sand moves through the hourglass so quickly, and that it’s up to us to move to the other side and continue climbing the mountain. And we also forget that right now is the only time we’re guaranteed to have together.
What we learn over time
It takes time and self-love to begin this journey, even if it’s out of necessity. In the following text, Jorge Luis Borges discusses how this need to be aware of the passage of time is often what brings us more awareness in life. We hope you enjoy it!
Over time, I learned the subtle difference between taking someone’s hand and chaining down someone’s soul. Over time I learned that love doesn’t mean leaning on someone, and that company doesn’t mean security.
Over time, I started to realize that kisses are not contracts, gifts, or promises. Over time I learned that being with someone because they can offer you a good future means that sooner or later you’ll want to go back to your past.
Over time…you realize that getting married just because “it’s time” is a clear warning that your marriage will be a failure.
Over time I understood that only someone who can love you with all your flaws, without trying to change you, can give you all the happiness you desire. Over time you learn that if you’re with that person just because you feel lonely, you will inevitably get to the point where you don’t want to see them again.
Over time you realize that true friends are worth much more than any amount of money. Over time I understood that true friends can be counted on one hand, and that if you don’t fight for them, sooner or later you’ll be surrounded by only false friendships.
Over time I learned that words said in a moment of anger can continue to hurt the person for their entire life. Over time I learned that anyone can apologize, but only great souls can forgive.
Over time I learned that if you’ve really hurt a friend, the friendship will probably never be the same again. Over time you realize that even if you’re happy with the friends you have, one day you’ll cry for those you let go.
Over time you realize that every experience you have with someone is unrepeatable. Over time you realize that sooner or later, the people who humiliated or put down others will suffer four times the amount of humiliation and contempt.
Over time you learn to pave all your paths in the present, because tomorrow’s terrain is too uncertain for you to make plans. Over time I understood that if you try to pressure or force something to happen, it just won’t go the way you expected or hoped.
Over time you realize that in reality, the best isn’t yet to come; it’s in the moment you’re living right now. Over time you’ll see that even if you’re happy with what you have, you’ll long terribly for the things you had yesterday and are now gone.
But unfortunately, you only understand this over time.
We procrastinate and save things for a better time, when we have more hours in the day or when we’ve been able to achieve our goals. And in doing so, we forget that the clock doesn’t know anything beyond the 24 hours it can measure, and that the option to fight for our dreams is what gives us the gift of today.
We’ve forgotten that living is understanding that time passes without pausing, but it still gives us the option to appreciate the little things that allow us to truly love each other. Living is about knowing how to recognize and appreciate the trail of breadcrumbs that helps us understand that our other half is already inside us, and that it doesn’t make much sense to seek externally for the most important thing that can give us life.
