The main aim of Meditations for Mortals is to acquaint readers with a broader perspective on what drives our mania for controlling our schedules and inboxes. We fear the present moment, the way that we are “confined to this temporal locality, unable even to stand on tiptoes and peer over the fence into the future, to check that everything’s all right there.” I’ve felt, more times than I care to admit, that despite my heartbeat and mortgage and two walking, talking children, I’m not yet inside my life. Someday it will start, I imagine, the part of life in which I’m really engaged, really moving forward, really jolted with the electricity of having a mind and body that can interact with this wild world. I’ll leave behind this practice life for the real one.
— Hillary Kelly, from her interview of Oliver Burkeman in her essay: “You Are Going to Die.” (The Guardian, October 4, 2024)
“The secret to life is enjoying the passage of time” – James Taylor. The questions she poses are indeed heavy and a bit anxiety producing. That said, if someone told me that this is the panacea, I’d jump on board.
Me too!
while waiting for it to start, we fail to miss that the car is already barreling down the road
Yes!
somewhere, very far away, the name meant something to me – then I read the article in the Atlantic (tks btw) – the Pomodoro Technique! I think I read that, tried to ‚follow‘ it for a bit and thought it absolutely absurd…. But this guy IS actually wiser than one might think. Only, he overthinks, like most of us do too.
I‘m still loosing so much of my life span because my brain is in overdrive, 24/7/365… and yet, I‘m on my way. Maybe simply because I CANNOT speed along at 100m/h all the time? Or is it that I‘VE become wiser? It often makes me think of my mum who said to me, when I returned home from many, many years abroad: Now you are here to stay and take over responsibility that our family stays together, and I can die when my time comes. You also have now the necessary wisdom from all the experiences you made, to take the right measures and decisions…. (she said much more on the subject – and believe me, I didn‘t accept it w/o much discussion!) – YET, I took her words to my heart and try to live by them. And they made me to slow down my own pace of life which, in turn, just might prolong my life to a bit more than the 4000 weeks!
So much wisdom here Kiki. Thanks for sharing!
Thought I’d add this to the pile of thoughts.
“The more I think about it, the more I realize that overthinking isn’t the real problem. The real problem is that we don’t trust.” – L.J. Vanier
Profound!
In my age, Today, I am being surprised how I did, how I managed my life till to this old ages… Because something is out of control now. Especially in my own geography… No one can talk, no one can write, so you can never understand what’s going on… But life runs as time… A good life stories are not written as in the books… Every Morning, when I wake up, I wonder what kind of World I will find…. Mostly stories are being written while we are sleeping… Thank you dear David, Love, nia
Beautiful but sad description of reality everywhere. Thanks for sharing Nia.
For once, it doesn’t make one feel better to know that others feel this way, too. Rather, it makes one feel sad.🌷
Doesn’t it though!
Yes. I am going to die. That I agree.
No way!
Just recently re-bought Oliver Burkeman’s The Antidote – Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking. Gem of a book. Will have to watch out for this one.
I’ll need to pick up The Antidote. Thanks for the recommendation.
I’m going to ask a Kiki-style question: do you feel “inside” your life?
25%. That’s up from 10%.
That’s a huge up!
Working on it! Long way to go!
that‘s steep! You‘re on your way pal!
Inching forward Kiki. One step at a time!