
A man takes his son to a restaurant. The boy happily eats his meal and asks dad lots of questions about a variety of different topics, mostly about why things are the way things are. The man does his best to answer.
An older man a few tables away watched a while. As he got up to leave the restaurant, he asked the man how old his boy was. Six, he replied.
“Enjoy it now”, the older man said. “When he turns seven, the six-year-old version of him will be gone forever. When he turns eight, the seven-year-old in him will die. Savor these moments.”
While I could go on ad nauseum about savoring time with your children, I have something else to say.
When does this stop? And why?
When you turn twenty-five, does the twenty-four-year-old version of you die? Should it?
We are supposed to mature. We are supposed to grow. We celebrate, we commiserate. We applaud, we cry. Life has its challenges. We are supposed to face them. Challenges are put in our path so we can muster the strength to overcome them.
Bruce Lee once said,

Imagine being twenty-five years old. Your twenty sixth birthday comes along, but you are still the same person you were at the beginning of last year. You’ve not learned anything, progressed at all. Grown in any discernible way. Then suddenly there are twenty-seven candles on a cake, then twenty-eight.
What if we lived the same day for seventy-five years and called it a life?
Films like 40 Year Old Virgin, Step Brothers, Wedding Crashers, and Failure to Launch all have characters that advance into adulthood, but only physically. They insist on living their lives like they are much younger, when things were easier. These films are obviously hilariously over the top, but they take the matter of maturity seriously.
Let’s not confuse maturing with getting old. Let’s also not confuse getting older with losing that childlike wonder or that youthful ambition.
What I am talking about is living each day to its fullest. Living sunup to sundown trying to squeeze all of life out of every moment. Every time the sun sets, you’ve lost the chance to make the absolute most of that day. It’s gone and can never come back – but it also means that it’s gone, and we shouldn’t dwell on the things that could’ve gone better.
Every time the alarm sounds, we have a chance to learn, grow, and touch lives. We are given new opportunities to be a sun in someone’s sky. We can do for others and let them do for us. We can also do for ourselves. I tell my clients we can’t fill another’s teacup if our pot is empty. So, we should be kind to ourselves, so we can be kind to others.
Ferris Bueller once said, “Life is pretty short. If you don’t stop to take a look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
If you’re too young to know who Ferris Bueller is, Google it and watch the movie.
The point is, life is lived each day, day by day. Make the most of every moment in every day.
Before each of my Tai Chi classes (11am every Saturday at UU Church on Morgan Ave) I begin with a mindfulness meditation. I talk the students through the process of calming the mind, then calming the body. Then I encourage them to focus awareness on what is happening inside and outside the body at each moment. We observe each moment.
Such is the same with all of life. Observe each moment as you live it. Experience it, then let it go. Don’t dwell on it, good or bad. Just go on to the next moment, and experience that one fully and deeply.
By doing this, each time you blow out the ever-increasing number of candles in front of family and friends, you will have lived that year, the entire year, experienced all it had to offer, and grown.
Live it,
Weeg
Joe “Weeg” Weigant is a Licensed Massage Therapist, Holistic Health Practitioner, Herbalist, Metaphysician, and Empowerment Coach. He combines bodywork, energy work, and coaching to improve quality of life by healing from the outside in and from the inside out.
Weeg sells Nature’s Sunshine Products, Pure Herbs Ltd., doTERRA, and Juice Plus+. Weeg suggests lifestyle changes and provides herbal remedies to his clients so they may build new habits for long life and vibrant health. He teaches Karate and Tai Chi, Reiki Certification, as well as seminars and workshops in metaphysical and spiritual matters. Weeg is available for sessions at Tri State Holistic Wellness by appointment only.
Contact by text 812.568.5356, or Facebook Messenger to set an appointment.
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