Sometimes I still need to call myself out.

Unlike so many other times I’ve called myself out, which tended to border on abusive, this was more of a conversation between equals. This was me holding me accountable for me.

It felt like another day in a series of another days. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow just one seamless repetitively insignificant blur. No urgency. No passion. Just sorta showing up and going through the motions.

“Is that any way to treat the most important gift you’ve ever been given…your life?”

There is so much to be grateful for, yet with all that I’ve been given I can’t remember the last time I started my day with the reverence the gift of my life honesty deserves. The abundance of blessings has become ordinary, just a given, simply expected, like luxuriously plush bath towels at an exclusive resort you’ve been staying at for way too long.

Yes, I am intentional with my gratitude. Daily. It feels like a box I need to check off on my To Do list. But it never quite reaches the magnitude of that awe-struck kid on Christmas morning standing in front of the tree with eyes as big as his head who can’t believe what’s right in front of him.

You’d think knowing that I’ve already had more Christmases than I’m going to have would be life’s way of reminding me that time isn’t waiting for me to realize how precious it actually is. I know it is precious. And finite. Yet my recent lack of reverence feels like I’ve allowed myself to forget the most important part of all.

Life is a gift. The ultimate gift. A gift of opportunities and experiences and I called myself out because I needed to reframe my thinking that life, my life, is more than just a finite number of seemingly insignificant days I’m simply going to get through.

Sure, I’ve lived several decades and I share this earth with 8 billion other people, but neither of those facts dilutes the significance of my life and the reverence it deserves.

Actually, nothing should.

Sometimes I just need to remind myself.

Life is the ultimate gift.

Treat it that way.

Photo by Kevin Schmid on Unsplash

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