I have loved these lyrics from the first time I heard them. There is such freedom in the sentiment. A year in a life  – in your life – consists of five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred precious minutes; minutes of beauty, of joy, of sorrow and of pain.

Stop and think about that for a moment. I mean really think about it. In the next three hundred sixty five days, you will have five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred perfectly equal minutes worth of experiences. None shorter or longer than the last. None passing more quickly or more slowly than another.  For better or worse, that is it; one year is nothing more than a series of experiences.

Still, almost instinctively, we order and judge our lives using various constructs of time:

“This is the year I will finally…”

“Next week I commit to…”

“Tomorrow will be a better day”.

“By the time I am thirty [fourty…fifty…sixty…], I will…”

“My New Year’s resolution is…”

Of course we do right? It makes perfect sense. We crave structure and order in our lives. But, what if while we are busy structuring and ordering, there exists an unintended consequence? What if, while we are plotting the human experience against timelines, we neglect to experience our lives? What if, as we look toward how much better the next interval will be, we miss the opportunity to understand the experiences, opportunities and relationships that are occurring for us right now?

I don’t know where I will be five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes from now. I don’t know what I will have experienced or learned, nor who I will have loved or lost. But, I intend to experience every single one of those minutes with curiosity and gratitude for the journey. I intend to feel, and to learn, and to grow. That is after all, the entire point.