Future Perspective

I was listening to a book the other day, and while I have not really liked the book,  there was a small part that hit home with me. The main character is a woman in her seventies who, after devastating loss, is experiencing life in a whole new way. She is about to scuba dive for the first time and just as she is putting on her wetsuit she says, “ I had spent a lifetime hating my physical appearance in the present and then appreciating it in retrospect. No doubt there was a ninety year old Grace in the future who was wondering why I didn’t like the way I looked at seventy-two. If only we could always have the perspective of the future with us as we live in that present. Sure in each moment we have never been so old, but we are, of course, also the youngest we will ever be.” (Life Impossible by Matt Haig)

What if we lived today with the wisdom of our future selves? How much more grace would we extend to ourselves, both in how we look and how we live? Too often, we get caught up in fleeting concerns—worries that fade from memory in days, or even hours—while neglecting the things that will truly matter a decade from now.

The truth is, we’re all aging, but in this moment, we are also the youngest we’ll ever be. Instead of focusing on what we don’t like about ourselves or what isn’t going perfectly, let’s shift our focus. Let’s appreciate the present, knowing that our future selves would remind us how precious this time is.

So today, I challenge you: Give yourself grace. Celebrate where you are right now, and start paying attention to what will matter in the long run. Because the future is coming, and how we live today will shape it.