How long do we have? How many weeks more? I read Oliver Burkeman’s 4000 weeks when it came out in 2021, during the pandemic. Yes, from the time we are born and if we were to live till 80 we will have lived a little over 4000 weeks. I turned fifty that year and found that I only had 1500 weeks left. 4000 felt less and 1500 then felt jeez… And that was 4 years back. Now I find that it is only 1300. I am done with 200 weeks during this time. It is finishing fast.

I only have 1300 weekends more left. Workweeks, even less as I don’t know if I will have my faculties intact when I am 80. I might not be useful for anyone to want me to work and pay for it. Who knows, I might even be living under other people’s mercy. That is, if I live up to 80, which is doubtful based on how I have lived my life till now. I even feel I have been living on borrowed time. We never anticipate the worst. We don’t think of death, though we know it will happen.

Long life expectancy is extremely expensive these days 😂

Not to make anyone feel bad, but a fact that our time is limited and as Oliver Burkeman’s new book Meditations for Mortals says, we need to embrace our limitedness.

Last two weeks my schedule was messed up. Workout, walks, sleep, even reading turned out to be less relaxing. Yesterday, I went back to Oliver and his meditations.

We can never recreate a moment from our life. When we meet someone and chat, We don’t realize that conversation can never be recreated. It is gone, over… never to be experienced again. This is true of anything in life.

We try to hold on to things and memories like we will get to experience them again. We plan for an unlimited future. But like the Greek Philosopher Heraclitus said “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man”.

We are not the same person, every moment passes, nor are our life the same. The impermanence of life is such that our grudges should mean nothing to us. Yet I hold on to them. Like letting go will make me lose my own self. As silly as it may sound.

As Oliver puts it, there will never come a time in life when we will be done with all our responsibilities and be ready to rest or do things we love yet put away. It is here and now.. Every single experience is here in the present.

There is no experience in the future, just anticipation. Not that we should not plan.. But be aware of our limitedness… as John Lennon’s lyrics in ‘Beautiful Boy’ reminds us “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans”

Live… experience.. we won’t get another chance to live the moments we miss… family.. friends.. colleagues.. chitchats… our time listening.. pets.. sleep.. good times.. smiles.. attention.. Our limited time… our limitedness.. here.. now.. 😍🙏