we choose to spend time on ourselves and know how to use it.
me: "i like your hair! how many times do you need to bleach and dye it to make it such a gorgeous color (creamy white)?"
x: "i dye it myself every two weeks and need to bleach it every month to keep this light color"
me: "wow! i used to want to dye a similar color but my hairdresser stopped me because my hair was too thin and too weak. he was worried it would damage my hair."
x: "well,,,life is too short. we only live once. i'll just do it."
this was a short conversation i had with a neighbor, but this small moment made me think when he said "life is too short. we only live once". i first thought it was so true and impelling. but...wait...did I waste my life by not indulging in enjoyable experiences or pursuing activities that bring me happiness? that small moment brings back memories of when i vented my negative emotions to my friends, despite their good intentions and attempts to uplift me. i often heard the four words 'life is too short' repeated. honestly, it doesn't help and sometime could sound like bullshit.
me thinking: "i'm such an idiot wasting my time on experiencing negative emotions, and talking with friends further invalidated my emotions. thank you."
i became more cautious not throwing those four words to my friends mindlessly, which could make them feel worse.
so, is life too short?
actually, life is as long as it is supposed to be.
life could feel short if i spend the majority of my time appeasing others and turning my life into a constant race to achieve goals, rather than taking a moment to reflect on my own accomplishments, whispering to myself, 'wow, you've achieved so much. you're truly great
yes. life is as long as it is supposed to be.
yes. we have choices.
“it is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. but when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death’s final constraint to realize that it has passed away before we knew it was passing. so it is: we are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it… life is long if you know how to use it.”
― seneca, on the shortness of life: life is long if you know how to use it
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