“It doesn’t matter what time of day you work, but you have to work every day because creation, like life, is always slipping away from you.”
~ Walter Mosley
On his deathbed, Socrates exhorted his followers to practice dying as the highest form of wisdom.
The practice is not intended to drag you into despair, but rather is meant to provide you with a profound awareness and appreciation for the present — for the incredible gift of life — so that you avoid stumbling through your days in a fog of numbed-out disregard.
I just did a quick calculation. If I live another 50 years, I have exactly 2600 more Sundays left to enjoy.
Think about that for a moment.
Realizing that the number of one’s remaining Sundays is finite in a very concrete sense gives me a different perspective on how I value and experience a Sunday from now on. I move from inconsiderate to entirely considerate of the magnitude of the blessing a Sunday is.
My senses are heightened, alert. My heart and eyes are open. My first instinct is to create and to connect, not hide.
When it comes to creativity, I believe there are windows that open for a brief time to let the idea or inspiration in like a burst of a breeze. We can gather up our pen, brush, or clay in that moment and let the creation be brought through us to life, or we can choose to ignore it and let it blow right past us (and into someone else’s window).
I also believe that if we consciously or unconsciously lower the sash against those breezes from the muse, we can find that those visits are fewer and further in between in the future.
Practicing a continued stance of expectant appreciation for creation and our gift of the next 24 hours provides us with a bliss-filled pursuit of what can be.
That is, what may I bring to life while I am still living?