What Are You Waiting for Life to Become?
There is a strange way we divide our lives.
There is the life we are living.
And the life we imagine we will live when something changes.
When work settles down.
When there is more money.
When the children need us less.
When we meet someone.
When we leave someone.
When we move.
When we feel more confident.
When we finally know what we are doing.
We don't necessarily put our lives on hold.
We still get up.
Go to work.
See people.
Make plans.
Laugh.
Cook.
Travel.
Get things done.
From the outside, life is happening.
But somewhere inside, we can still be waiting.
Waiting for the part that feels more like the life we thought we would have.
The Life In Between
I think that is what makes ordinary days so interesting.
They don't announce themselves as our life.
They can feel like the space between the important parts.
A Tuesday is just a Tuesday.
A quiet weekend is just a quiet weekend.
Another week passes and we barely mark it.
We tell ourselves that things will be different when something else falls into place.
And perhaps sometimes they will be.
But there is something worth noticing about all the living that happens before then.
Because eventually, enough ordinary days pass that we realise the in-between wasn't in between at all.
It was our life.
Not Every Day Needs to Be Meaningful
I don't think the answer is to make every day meaningful.
That sounds exhausting.
Nor do I think we need to be constantly grateful for every cup of tea, every conversation and every sunset.
Ordinary life does not need to become extraordinary for us to value it.
Perhaps we simply need to notice when we have quietly made our present life conditional on a future one.
When I have more time, I will...
When I feel more confident, I will...
When this difficult period is over, I will...
When I have enough money, I will...
When I know what I want, I will...
Some of those things may genuinely need to wait.
