Because of the world we live in, some of my dreams may only ever now be a fantasy. But who knows. Here’s why.
My Nana is one of the most important people to me.
She is due to turn the big 8–0 on the 1st of December this year. She’s active on Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and Medium. How many 80-year olds do you know on Medium haha? She has had an aneurysm for quite some time now, but because the surgery is complex and there have been many road bumps and delays, I put the surgery into my I’ll-deal-with-how-I-feel-about-this-later/another-day basket. That day came today. Her surgery has been confirmed for next Friday. It’s risky. I’m left wondering if when I saw her last would be the last time (ominous I know). I would have held her forever and never let go. I’m hoping for the best, I really, desperately am.
Sometimes we all need to have faith and hope. What else is there?
I also find myself wishing for the only thing I believe to be genuinely impossible — wishing for more time.
Wishing that we all got to have more time with our special people.
Time is more valuable than money.
We can get more money, but we cannot get more time.
I find it perturbing when I see the fast-forward to 2021 posts on social media. Or comments complaining about how we don’t get to do this and that at the moment.
For those of you wishing time would skip forward to next year, I’m not trying to make you feel bad or wrong.
Instead, I want to offer you a different perspective — an alternate way to see the world. Please stop for a minute, and consider this:
These are the days we have time to prioritise picking up the phone or video calling and tell people we love them — anyone and everyone in our lives.
To invest our time and hearts into those who matter regardless of where they are in the world. We can regale stories, shared experiences, past-adventures. We can listen to stories of our elders and embed them in our memories forever.
This is the time we can get all those some-day, one-day projects done.
This is the time we could get healthy and in the best shape of our lives — physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually — any or all of it.
This is the time we could focus on wellbeing, wonder, gratitude, learning new skills or a language, how to be agile, resilient and how to focus and single-task.
These are the days when we have more time to go for walks or read at home. Binge-watch more TV than ever before, guilt-free.
Opt to work with no pants on. Drink at 10 am. Live in in our pyjamas — all without judgement.
This could be time to start thinking about designing a specific future in the new world with our new normals post-COVID.
Just because things feel uncomfortable, unsafe, less certain, unfamiliar,
And our choices are temporarily limited for the greater good of humanity,
Please don’t wish for this time to have gone by already.
There are always opportunities at every moment.
That is one of the tricks of opportunity. It has a sly habit of slipping in the back door and often comes disguised in the form of MISFORTUNE or TEMPORARY defeat. This is perhaps why so many of us fail to recognise opportunity.
I have a dream of seeing so much more of our world, of exploring, of photographing and writing about it and sharing it all. This time I will record it with purpose and passion. Travel now seems so much more scarce and limited; I feel like I will appreciate it more and not take capturing memories for granted.
I have the re-occurring vision of returning from future adventures and sharing them with my Mum and Nana. I plan on sending them postcards from every stop.
I see myself bring them gifts from far and wide — The Maharajas’ Express, photos of The Northern Lights, perfumes from Paris, pictures of Cappadocia and Pyramids of Giza, chocolates from Belgium. I would present them while sipping Champagne over a long-lunch, the warm rays of the sun shining as we overlook the Auckland city harbour. Over bubbles and laughs, and we would feast and talk about all the places I have been, and these magical gifts have come from.
