Lessons from August
Stop and smell the roses
The cruelty of time is that it never stands still. Life is always changing, in ways seen and unseen. At any given moment, you are creating webs your mind can’t even begin to comprehend. Weaving threads across the tapestry of time. A simple hello to a stranger is just the beginning of a chapter. A door closed, the start of a new life. Your actions are always creating a domino effect. The consequences of which you may not realize until months, years or even a lifetime later.
We don’t know what tomorrow holds. At times, we don’t even pay the future any mind. It doesn’t concern us. It’s so far away. So unpredictable. Why waste my time to stop and think about it? I am too busy and having too much fun in the present. But 2 years later, you’re having dinner alone at your and your friends’ favourite spot, and you wonder, “How did I end up here by myself?” John Green wrote that falling in love is like falling asleep, “slowly and then all at once.” But I think life is like that, too. The shifts are so minuscule that you don’t notice them, but those small actions lead to big outcomes, and suddenly your life looks completely different.
Time doesn’t move backwards. It’s a bitter pill to swallow. You live every day only once. But we’re too occupied to realize that every day is a building block for the house of our life and that if we don’t take notice, life will get away from us. I don’t want to look back on my happy memories and realize those were the good old days. I want to savour the goodness while it’s happening. I want to be present. I want to live with intention. I want to pay more attention to the way a loved one smiles and appreciate their presence in my life.
I think that’s what we should all aim for. To be painfully aware that time is slipping through our fingertips. To know that, in an instant, everything can change. The luxuries you are offered now are finite. The friendships you have today may be gone tomorrow. So cherish them. Life will always move forward. It’s the one thing that you will never be able to control. One day, you will look in the mirror and your gray hair and wrinkles will remind you that you are a victim of the same thing as thousands of other human beings that lived before you: time. The only thing that matters is whether you made your time here count.
- Roobz
Wow Roobz this is brilliant. It beautifully captures something we all feel but rarely articulate... that haunting awareness of time's relentless forward march. I love how you've woven together the metaphor of life as a tapestry with concrete moments like eating dinner alone at "your and your friends' favourite spot." That specific detail makes the abstract concept viscerally real.
Your John Green reference is particularly powerful because it reframes his observation about love to encompass all of life's major shifts. It's these kinds of unexpected connections that make readers pause and see familiar truths in new ways.
One writing tip that could amplify the impact of this article is to anchor your philosophical reflections with a specific story or scene. While your insights about time are profound, opening with a concrete moment - perhaps that dinner alone, or watching a loved one's smile, or even a specific "simple hello to a stranger"... would give readers an emotional entry point before diving into the deeper truths.
The most memorable pieces often move from the particular to the universal rather than staying in abstract territory. Your observations are spot-on; wrapping them around a narrative moment would make them unforgettable.
Great article overall. Thank you so much for sharing