20/05/2026
TIME
Nearly every day, I get a message that someone is seriously ill, has been moved into hospice, or has died. This situation is challenging and common to all of us in old age. Nevertheless, we must not long for the past and we must not clutch for the future.
Every old person is keenly aware of time. The majority of one’s life has passed, the future is uncertain, especially if one thinks of it as waiting for some affliction or dire deterioration like a heart attack, stroke, or dementia. Nothing is certain. Especially as one’s friends get ill and die, it’s easy to fall into doubt.
The Queen Mother of the West, Xīwángmǔ, is a goddess who resides in a mythical Mount Kūnlún, also called Tortoise Mountain. If you don’t want to bother with the cultivation that brings immortality, you can try to find the garden and eat one of the peaches. For thousands of years people have worshipped her and the idea of living a longer life. That’s a charming enough story, but even if you searched for those peaches, you would have to make a great effort. Why not simply invest in yourself and your own garden?
One of the Chinese words for “tree” 樹also means “to cultivate.” People are enamored with the idea of easy immortality. We should scrutinize the cultivation to grow the trees just as much. Could we have the dedication to plant, grow, return, and regrow what’s important to us?
Let's not lament the time that has passed, and let us not waste our thought on guessing how much time we might have left. No one can know. Instead, we should think of today.
Each day is gone. So we should live each day fully, enjoy it, and also invest it for the future.
If we take each day and make preparations for many achievements over time, those efforts will not only give us daily satisfaction but they will provide us the resources to meet tomorrow—and many more tomorrows after that.
