to hell with shapewear!
If you could find out how much time you had left, would you want to know? This is the premise of the book, The Measure by Nikki Erlick. Last month, alongside bright colored pink beet hummus, fresh spring rolls, chocolate and oatmeal cookies, and beautiful, illuminating paintings splashed on the walls around us, a group of friends got together to chat about the book. Most of us agreed that we would not want to know. But some felt it would be hard to resist peeking at the box containing our fate.
It was a thought-provoking read and so was the discussion. If you knew your time here was drastically limited, what would you change? Is there anything you would do differently? How would you want to spend your remaining time and with whom?
When I brought the question up to friends at dinner, my girlfriend said she already lives each day with this understanding close to her heart. She said, however, she would choose to know so friends and family would have the time to be with her and say what they needed to say.
Her perspective struck a chord with me. And one I’m ashamed to admit, I didn’t think about from that perspective initially. I was focused on how the information about my time left would impact me, what if anything I would change not how it would impact my loved ones. It makes me wonder, do we owe it to those we love to share that information with them if we know it?
We are all connected and all part of the same living, breathing planet and what we do impacts every other single organism. When we forget that, when we let divisive thinking separate us, everyone and everything suffers.
The mystery of our existence is anxiety inducing but the not knowing gives us the incredible opportunity to have faith and experience hope, miracles, kindness, and transcendent beauty.
Our time here is limited. When armed with this knowledge, how do you want to spend your time? Worrying about wrinkles, extra rolls on our backs, and whether Judy Rottenmilk follows you on social media? I think not!
Reading books like The Measure and listening to podcasts like Yer Going to Die helps keep this in the forefront of my being. It helps me let go of the stuff that doesn’t matter which is most of it, and stay open. It helps me say, “To hell with shapewear”! If I have one life to live (that I know of anyway), I’m not going to spend it in sausage casing with snaps in low places.
Living with the awareness of our own mortality keeps me alive and choosing to exist in the space of love, light, joy, and laughter. It acknowledges fear and then tells it to eff off. It reminds me to love myself exactly as I am right now and to not wait for things to change and or to get better. Because this is it.