Life is Too Short

As I write this email I am still taken back by the powerful words in travel photographer David duChemin's recent post about the reality of human existence.  "Life is too short", the title of one of his latest posts on his popular photography blog sends a strong and awakening message of the uncertainty of life and man's fallacy to truly appreciate his short time on this planet.

We have all heard this kind of inspirational prose before and while it might seem redundant to highlight one of the most commonly known and feared truths, the message still seems to resonate within us as our minds urge our bodies to take action, to make something worthwhile happen.

I personally never seem to tire from reading and hearing this message as it serves as a reminder to take advantage of what has been given to me.  Below is but just a paragraph or two of duChemin's post but I highly recommend going to his site and reading the rest.

"I had breakfast with a close friend of mine yesterday and it’s that meeting that is making me write this, because I can’t keep it in this morning. His wife, one of my favourite people on the planet, is fighting for her life against inoperable brain cancer. She’s fighting, but she’s not well, and the doctors are talking in terms of quality of life, not healing, not remission. My heart is breaking for her. My heart is breaking for him. A young couple that, like all of us, thinks they have forever together, have all the time in the world to chase their dreams. But we don’t. None of us do. It’s an illusion.

Life is short. We seem to think that we’ll live forever. We spend time and money as though we’ll always be here. We buy shiny things as though they matter and are worth the debt and stress of attachment. We put off the so-called “trip of a lifetime” for another year, because we all assume we have another year. We don’t tell the ones we love how much we love them often enough because we assume there’s always tomorrow. And we fear. Oh, do we fear. We stick it out in miserable jobs and situations because we’re afraid of the risk of stepping out. We don’t reach high enough or far enough because we’re worried we’ll fail, forgetting – or never realizing – that it’s better to fail spectacularly while reaching for the stars than it is to succeed at something we never really wanted in the first place."