Monday Moment: 24 Brand New Hours

In this Monday Moment, Tania reflects on a simple passage that sparked a deeper question: what would it mean to truly live these next 24 hours as though they were precious? Through reflections on COVID, aging parents, busyness, and the people we love, she explores how easily we assume there will always be more time, and why that assumption deserves a second look. 

Transcript

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Happy Monday. This morning, I was reading a passage from a book called Peace Is Every Breath, and it inspired today's Monday moment. The quote says, "Waking up this morning, I smile. Twenty-four brand-new hours are before me. I vow to live fully each moment and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion." It really caused me to pause because, honestly, I don't think I move through most days as though they're precious or finite. I mostly operate with this assumption that there will always be another tomorrow. It also made me wonder, what does it actually mean to live fully? I thought back to COVID during the shutdowns when I couldn't see my parents for months because they were in Canada, I was in the US, and I remember how painful that felt. And how I promised that once the world opened back up, I would never again take time with loved ones for granted. I think many of us made these types of silent promises. We were gonna learn from this experience. We were gonna slow down, prioritize relationships, stop putting busyness and productivity ahead of what really matters. And then of course, life resumed and the world reopened, schedules filled back up, and many of us slowly slipped back into old patterns. At least I did. I mean, perhaps not completely. I do think the experience changed me. I'm, more aware, more intentional in certain ways, but I also recognize how easy it is to drift back into acting like time is unlimited. And related to that, I've been thinking a lot about my parents as they're getting older. My dad is in his mid-80s, and not to sound morbid, but even if he lives another 10 years, that's 10 summers, 10 Christmases, 10 birthdays. And when I think about it that way, it suddenly doesn't feel like endless time anymore And I'm not sharing this to make anyone sad. Honestly, it's landing to me more as an invitation than a fear. An invitation to pay attention and stop living quite so much on autopilot. To stop assuming there will always be more time later for the phone call, the visit, the conversation, the joy, the rest, the things that matter most. And maybe living fully isn't something grand or dramatic. Maybe it's texting or calling someone while you still can, or taking the walk instead of working through your lunch, sitting in the sun, telling people you love them. Just being a little more present in your own life instead of constantly racing towards the next thing. Because of course, tomorrow isn't guaranteed, and we all know this intellectually, but I think part of being human is that we live as though it is. So today I'm sitting with this question. If these next twenty-four hours were precious, how would I live them differently? Who would I reach out to? What would matter less? What would matter more? And maybe that's the invitation for today, to move through this day with just a little more awareness, a little more connection, a little more intentionality than usual. And maybe in doing that, we begin to live a little more fully. Have a good one.