Five friends and I made a commitment last night: to wake in the early morning for a swim in the ice-cold Lake Brienz.
As the alarm chimed, inertia said “no”, comfort said “maybe later”, and resistance said “there is always tomorrow”.
But I took inspiration from Wait But Why’s article “The Tail End”. It’s an eye opening read on how we have less time than we think for the important people and experiences in our lives.
To put things into perspective, in the past 10 years, I’ve swam fewer than 10 times in freshwater lakes. When you extrapolate that track record, it’s frightening to think how few lake swims I have left.
There was no decision to be made this morning.
We ran through the slanting rain and hobbled over sharp stones to get to the lake side. After diving head-first into the water, we shouted up at the encircling mountains through our cold and in our joy.
When we see these daily opportunities through the lens of how few of them we have left, we start living in a different way.