14,295 as of today
Photo by Author: Koyasan
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the whole world. According to WHO, over 6.5 million people died. Everybody’s lives have been disrupted. The news in every media is full of tragedy.
Here I dare focus on the silver lining. How many can I find in my life?
…
The fear of death is normal. That’s why people all of the world have endured so much inconvenience during the lockdown, to save as many lives as possible from this horrible virus.
I’m no exception.
But really? Has anybody ever been able to avoid death? Alexander the Great didn’t. Genghis Khan didn’t. The same with all the emperors in Roman Empire, the kings of British empire, India’s Maharajas …
Death is unavoidable. It shall come to anybody. You just don’t want it to come too early. Then when is not too soon?
My journal says it was April 13, 2021. I finished reading Sadhguru’s book Death; An Inside Story: A book for all those who shall die.
The book gave me an opportunity to take a look at this phenomenon differently. Death marks the end of my life. Until I die, I live. How should I face this reality that my life is limited?
In my journal I started to add one line to state the number of days I left until my 100th birthday. I arbitrarily set that is the day I die. If I live longer than that day, it will be a bonus. If I die before that day, so be it.
More important for me is that I remind myself every morning that when I wake up today, I have one day shorter to live than yesterday.
I named the Excel sheet I created to calculate this number as “My Life Is Ticking Away Table.”
As of today (November 12, 2022), the table says:
- 14,295 days remaining till my 100th birthday (the day I die)
- 2,042 weeks
- 469 months
- 39 years
How many more weekly brunches can I enjoy? How many more monthly Ikebana classes can I conduct? How many more annual trips to Europe can I enjoy? This tables answers those questions.
Everything I do in the future has finite number. Nothing is infinite for me. I’m well reminded of this unavoidable reality of life.
That’s all thanks to the pandemic.
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What’s your silver lining?