Only this body

“There is one simple thing wrong with you – you think you have plenty of time … If you don’t think your life is going to last forever, what are you waiting for? Why the hesitation to change? You don’t have time for this display, you fool. This, whatever you’re doing now, may be your last act on earth. It may very well be your last battle. There is no power which could guarantee that you are going to live one more minute.” – Carlos Castaneda

Somehow it’s mid-April. I meant to write, but I realize months have passed. I considered a manifesto for 2016. Reflections on a year of 40. Goals for 41. But time passed, and somehow it seemed that my reflections felt too private to share, or I couldn’t quite pull them together, or find the time to sit down and write… and then, well… time just passed.

I meant to write about London. And then I meant to write about California. Or riding my fatbike in the snow.

I didn’t just push the bike..

There were family adventures and friends and triumphs and sadness.

Celebrating this young guy’s 96th!

Yet time just kept passing. I just kept living.

I met with a teacher who I work with a few weeks ago. He started in by saying that he was in yoga recently and was looking down at his feet and thought to himself, this is the only body I will ever have.

I laughed, we were there to talk math. But his comment stuck with me, reminding me of this one body, this one life, this one chance at living, at making something great.

My manifesto might be late, my goals for 41 are 1/4 over, but, the lesson remains. I don’t want time to just simply cruise on by. I want to remember that this is the time, now.

Time for what? I’m not always sure – but time to take chances, time to drink good beer and eat amazing food, to spend time with friends and people who bring me joy, time to love and dance and take risks, to travel and not save ‘it’ (whatever it is) for a rainy day or for when I’m old. This is the time. This is now.