The last time

​This is the last time you’ll look into the eyes of the one you love. How closely will you look? How intensely will you study their colour, their depth?

This is the last time you’ll hear the birds singing. The last time you’ll hear the wind rustling the trees. The last time you’ll hear the water running over the rocks. The last time you’ll hear your favourite song.

This is the last time you’ll see a smile spread across your parent’s faces. Enjoy it. Savour it. Cherish it.

This is the last time you’ll taste a steak. Or enjoy a coffee. Or smell the scents that mingle in your garden.

Any time you ever feel like you can’t summon up any gratitude or appreciate the world around you, play a game. Imagine that tomorrow you will be deprived of one of your senses. Either sight, smell, hearing, taste or touch. Just one.

Notice how much the eyes see, the ears hear, the nose smells, the mouth tastes and the body touches.

Pretending like it might be gone tomorrow compels you to pay attention to it. And this enhanced attention will allow you to appreciate it. Yes, contemplating the loss of something so fundamental is scary. It’ll fill you with sorrow. Nobody wants to imagine losing something so dear to them.

But it helps you appreciate what you have before it’s taken away from you.