
A lot can happen in a day.
Someone will get into the wrong car, you’ll miss the bus you were supposed to take to work, or someone might circle your block a few times before finding what they’re looking for.
But if there’s one thing that never changes, it’s this: you start with just about everything you need for life. And every day, you lose a tiny piece of it.
It’s a very interesting point, and I’m going to expand upon that a little bit. We are all born with everything we need to be alive, in the form of our genes. Everything is there; nothing has to be learned. It’s easier said than done, though, and this is where the rest of our lives begin.
As we grow from babies into toddlers, our muscles get stronger and faster. We’re able to push ourselves further than we ever could before thanks to how our bodies are constantly adapting. We started walking on two legs, which is a big deal.
Before that, our only option was to crawl or roll around on the ground. It’s a major evolutionary step for us as humans, and we take it for granted due to how young we were when we mastered it.
Around this point in your life, you start to be able to communicate with people better, thinking of longer sentences and putting them together.
You can start playing with toys, and your ability to interact socially improves. In short, you’re growing up.
But the thing is, we never stop growing. It’s something that most people don’t acknowledge enough.
Although some people grow into their teens and then settle down into adulthood — taking a lot of the things they’ve learned so far and applying them to their lives — others just keep on going until they’re in their eighties or nineties.
There are plenty of elderly people out there who can still read and write and learn new things.
But that’s not everything. There’s a lot more to life than reading, writing, and enjoying a good meal once in a while.
There is also facing your fears every day, learning to appreciate life for what it is, and taking part in philosophical debates with friends from time to time.
These are just some of the things that we lose as we get older because we get used to certain aspects of our lives. We get too comfortable and take it for granted, and it makes us stop learning.
Although we’re still able to live as before, we’re not interested in doing that anymore. We start to lose our desire to face hardships and become stronger than we were before. We want easy lives, where everything is taken care of for us.
We start taking everything for granted and stop wanting to improve ourselves — and even lose interest in the things that made us who we are — because they aren’t bothering us anymore.
It’s because of this that we can never really appreciate what we have and sometimes even lose it. Knowing this ideally brings us back to it. It reminds us that each time we take something for granted, the loss grows exponentially.
If we start with one piece of our life and then lose the other, we’ll end up losing everything — and that’s pretty devastating.
That’s not to say you have to be a good person who never gives up. We all make mistakes, and that’s okay. Just keep in mind that when you do, it might be time to start looking forward and finding a way to fix things.
You may have lost a few pieces by accident, but that doesn’t mean you have to lose them forever. Maybe it’s time for that learning experience or philosophical debate. It may be the push you need at this point in your life.
So, get started. You can’t lose something that you’ve never had, but you know what? You also can’t keep it if you don’t fight for it.
The river of life flows onward. As long as it does, there is always something to enjoy.
The River of Life flows onward, but our lives are short.
Within this short span of ours, we were able to gain a lot from what came before us.
At some point, though, we find that we lose things — sometimes even little things that made us who we are.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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You may also like these posts on The Good Men Project:
White Fragility: Talking to White People About Racism |
Escape the “Act Like a Man” Box |
The Lack of Gentle Platonic Touch in Men’s Lives is a Killer |
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Photo credit: Terry Vlisidis on Unsplash
White Fragility: Talking to White People About Racism
Escape the “Act Like a Man” Box
The Lack of Gentle Platonic Touch in Men’s Lives is a Killer
