I’ve never really understood what it means to live each day as if it were your last – until meditating on it that is

In a recent post I mentioned my partners brother and his illness. The news has not improved only to become ever more shocking. The hospital have now realised that his liver cancer is very aggressive and, after having discussed the options with the patient, it’s been decided he should return home. A hospice is to be arranged in order for him to live out the time he has left in relative comfort.

When we experience this sort of thing a whole manner of thoughts crowd in. We begin to experience sadness at the impending loss. We think about all the consequences to losing someone we love. It is of course all the more painful when the person who is dying isn’t particularly old. We consider our own age and feel threatened and fearful about become so ill ourselves. We imagine the life they’re missing out on and we imagine our lives going on without their presence. We experience profound sadness. Our hearts break.

If possible, the kind of conversation we can have, with all concerned, relates to living each day as if it were the last

Yes, it’s only after meditating on this saying, has it started to make better sense. When I pondered on it thoughts concerning my recent activities came to mind. I’ve recently bought a motorcycle and after taking off the fairings some things have come to light. The machine was described as being in beautiful condition but, as if often the case, the previous owner made a false claim. He wasn’t lying, I believe he was simply ignorant, to the problems. Ignorant because he’d never dismantled it.

Whenever I buy a used motorcycle I have a habit of taking it apart. I do this in order to ensure it’s properly serviced and isn’t likely to let me down. As you will understand properly maintaining a motorcycle is important because your life might depend on it. Anyway, my point is, fixing or simply maintaining motorcycles, is something I’ve been doing most of my adult life. So, in effect, everything I do, in terms of motorcycle maintenance, is only an expansion on something I’ve done before. I’m repeating myself. Most of what we do is a repeat of something we’ve either witnessed or done ourselves. Our future activities are an expansion of these things. This is why we’re so adept at forgetting the past; both the pain and pleasure. If everything we did each day was completely new and unfamiliar life would be intolerable.

And so to get right to the point, if our lives are to be cut short, it becomes particularly painful if we cast our minds into an imaginary future

When you’re in the present there is no such thing as the future. In order to live each day as if it were our last all we need do is remain present. To feel disappointment and sadness about an imagined future (where we’re repeating all we’ve done before) is nonsensical. There’s no puzzle on how to live each day as if it were your last, because if you’re present, no matter what it is you’re doing, it will be the last time you ever do it.

Take control of your mind – and by extension your life – by learning how to meditate.