Better to taste it now

Excerpt from an essay by Roger Housden in his book "Seven Sins For A Life Worth Living"

Day by day, tiny specks of us float away. No matter which excercise or diet regiman we follow, no matter which self-help guru we believe in, nothing will dispel the reality that we are not built to last. Death is our supreme limitation, the final proof that perfection was never meant to be part of the human experience. A hundred years from now, all new people. Sooner rather than later, we shall not be here: no eyes, no nose, no ears, no tongue, no mind; no you or me -- gone.

Better to taste it now, this life that we have, than to defer it to some future that may never come.

I've read this advice countlessly, in different forms. But I have to constantly remind myself of its truth. There is no day but today. Carpe diem. When will I learn to wake up to that chorus line? Every time I believe there is time for things I should reconsider. Don't delay that dinner with friends. Don't put work ahead of that sacred time with your husband. Don't scrimp on food or stories for that breakfast with your family. Return every crazy smile that your niece sends your way.

Do we need to remind ourselves to live? We do.