Life is made of small things; it’s made of $5 coffees. We don’t get a year of life at once; we get 24 hours at a time. Or, if we want to be more precise, we get a minute at a time.
When you hit rock bottom and live unexpected and moving experiences, you realize that no day is guaranteed, and no one has their future secure. By future, I don’t mean the next 40 years, but the next 2 years or months. Life is today. Life is not about “the day I make a million dollars, I will share what I have and buy you a house.” No, life is about what is worth and what you have today.
Life is about that $5 coffee, that good night text, and an unexpected call in the middle of the day to know if you are having a good day. Life is about spontaneous plans and ice cream walks.
That is life. Life is not in a week, in 10 years when I have a lot of money in my bank account, or in 5 years when I finally have the time. Maybe the people we want to share the time or the money we say we will have don’t live to see it. Or maybe… we ourselves don’t live to see the million dollars on the bank statement or the free space in our calendars.
Days go by in the blink of an eye, and life goes by just like that. You may be accumulating money and time, but you don’t know if you will get to see the day when you have the time and the money. Every day brings its own struggle; we cross each bridge when we get there and when the time to cross it comes. But, if today we can use $5 to get a coffee for someone we love and make them happy, why not do it? If we are scared to give because we won’t have something left to save for ‘later,’ that only prevents us from putting a smile on the person who would receive it. Let’s not be afraid to “lose” $5 or 30 minutes now because of the question, “If I ‘lose’ that now, what will I do later”?
We cannot bank time. And yes, we can bank money, but we cannot bank the time we have to use it or the time of those we love and want to share it with. When you give that $5 coffee, life will make sure someone is as kind to you and will provide you with whatever you give back. When you Smile at a mirror, you get a smile back. Give what you can, material or non-material, big or small.
A smile, a call, a message or any act out of love and kindness now may be worth more than the million dollars we’d like to give away when they appear on our account. Now is when you can give and the person you want can receive.
If there is one thing that Lupus has taught me is that the disease is just as unpredictable as life itself. I run when I can, work out when I can, and move things when I can. I never know if, in 2 days, the pain will be bad, so I can’t run, do my workout or lift that box.
Today- go and get a coffee for someone you love and take it over to them just because. It’s better to make someone smile with a coffee now than not being able to see their smile with the big things ‘later.’
Remember, life is about the $5 coffees that make someone’s day and make them smile today.