For dust you are

Had you known, would you have made the same decisions? Would you have complained about those trivial grievances, or would your words have had greater meaning? Would each precious moment not have been appreciated for its beauty?

There are those among us who have lost more than we know; homes, jobs; loved ones. Had you known, would your effort have been more than the pretentious crap you’ve been producing? It’s that feeling that, in life, you always think you’re going to have an extra moment to get it right, to do what is required; to tell those who matter that you love them; because you’re just going to be able to fix it all at some point.

Now, here in the midst of a pandemic — regardless of your opinion about its severity, one must admit to it engulfing our entire world — we find ourselves regretting wasted opportunity, and hoping for a less complicated future.

Have you learned nothing? Have you, again, failed to pay attention to anything other than your own ambition? If you haven’t changed; you never will.

‘Now’ is all we have. There is no tomorrow. Limitations, complications and plagues; there is only now.

What you achieve doesn’t really matter. This; all of this, only ends one way. There is no greater adversary than time. A man may fight with all his might, yet, eventually, he will lose.

“By the sweat of your brow

you will eat your food

until you return to the ground,

since from it you were taken;

for dust you are

and to dust you will return.”

Whether by virus, or by gunshot, we cannot escape it. This has always been the case; yet we remain oblivious. You have this day, no more. Make sure they know you love them. Take what time you have, make it count. Not with superficial achievements, but do something with actual significance.

The world may change, and soon we’ll forget — most of us already have.

“All men live enveloped in whale-lines. All are born with halters round their necks; but it is only when caught in the swift, sudden turn of death, that mortals realize the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life. And if you be a philosopher, though seated in the whale-boat, you would not at heart feel one whit more of terror, than though seated before your evening fire with a poker, and not a harpoon, by your side.”

― Herman Melville, Moby-Dick or, the Whale

The future, as always, remains uncertain. That which we think difficult, isn’t difficult at all. When opportunity comes; empty the tank. It might not come again.

Work

(This refers to physical expression — training — that accompanied the above thoughts)

3 rounds

500m run

50 push ups

25 pull ups

3 rounds

500m row

50 air squats

50 sit ups