What if all of a sudden, humans got the ability to know when they only have 24 hours to live? One question that makes me wonder what I would do with my last 24 hours of my life, given the strength and money that I have right now. Given the roles that I have in many people, it is really hard to think of a single day to be with them or even find the words to say goodbye. I don’t want this to be a sad goodbye, although it is. Goodbye was never a great word to say to someone you love — someone you want to be with for the rest of your life, I mean longer than the rest of your life. However, this is not a sad blog about death and separation. This is going to be a list of things I want to do in a whole day before I die. Ice cream. This got to be number one! I don’t know about other people but I’m more of an ice cream guy than a cake one. Maybe because I can still talk while eating it. I can talk to the people around me while enjoying this. I wanted to enjoy this time with them. I love seeing them happy and I believe nothing makes them any happier than ice cream on a summer day (hoping this last 24 hours would be summer). Flashbacks. A good recap is perfect for this kind of moment. laughing over our stupid drama in the past makes us think why do we have time for drama if our days are numbered? Flashbacks make us think how we kinda wasted our lives with small things but at the same time, those small things became as precious as the big ones. My graduation day is as precious as the day we sat down as a family and just talk about senseless things. My big steps are as precious as my small ones. We remember that the moments with other people, especially to those people we love, are like a jewel we collect. Big or small jewel shines the same. As Ally Condie says on her Matched Trilogy: “Every minute you spend with someone gives them a part of your life and takes part of theirs.” I wanted to see these flashbacks. I wanted to hear from them the part of my life that I’ve given to them. I wanted to share their parts that were given to me. Write a song. I am not a musician but I love musicals. It would be nice to have a final song for an exit. They can sing it when this 24 hour is over. They might forget my voice but my voice will be theirs. My words and my melody remain. Besides, singing my song with friends and family is a great moment to have.
What if?
If knowing our last 24 hours is great then why on earth it is not a thing? I refuse to accept the answer of “well, that’s the way it is”. I believe this great life has a purpose of why.
And I think I know why. Just like what Mitch Albom said in his book Timekeeper:
There is a reason God limits our days.
To make each one precious.
Not knowing the exact time gives us the importance of doing the things that are important now. NOW. Not to do it on an unreliable tomorrow.
After pointing out the major things I would do with my last 24 hours I have decided to treat each day as my last 24 hours (well, except for ice cream. That’s not healthy folks. haha). If we keep on thinking that there will always be a tomorrow to appreciate the people around us, we may have a thousand years to live but that moment will never come. Life is short to hide our feelings for the ones we love. That is the only thing we need to know. We may never know the last 24 hours of our lives but we know each day we missed doing the things we need to do, we are 24 hours less the chance to do so.
We can only accept that life is unpredictable. It is easier said than done I know but once we do accept it, we have a better view of what’s important.
For example, we focus less on anger because life is too short to be occupied by anger — or it could be too long to be occupied by anger. We focus more on what makes us happy and fulfilled because there might be no tomorrow to be happy.
In short, we must focus on things that we want to fill this immeasurable timeline.
We don’t know if we have a little time or too much. I think that’s perfect. If we know we have too much we might take it for granted. If we know we have a few we might rush everything. Instead, we have this uncertain time. So we don’t know if we need to rush or we need to wait. What we know is that every second is precious. Thinking about this idea might change our mindset on how we live our lives. We can sit down with someone and talk about unimportant things (because who knows how long this life can be) but still making the conversation so precious in our memory (because who knows how short this life can be).
This makes us see a certain person. This idea, I believe, makes you think of that certain person. That person you wanted to be with for the rest of your life, from 24 hours to eternity.
Now, every minute seems a countdown for us. We know that everything ends, that’s not the issue. The question is how you live your life and how you make each day precious. Make every second count!
Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. — Psalm 90:12