Three ways memory, presence, and anticipation fill our gift of life
1. Memory: The Story We Carry
Memory is our way of stitching the past into the present. Without it, life would dissolve into fragments. With it, we carry our people, our joys, our sorrows, our triumphs.
Think of a song that pulls you back to your teenage years, or the smell of bread that transports you into your grandmother’s kitchen. These aren’t just recollections. They’re time-travel. They remind us that our lives have continuity — that who we are today is built from the stories we’ve lived before.
Memory can hurt. Grief is often carried in memory. But even then, the pain testifies: this mattered, and it still does. That is dignity. Memory keeps love—of people, of events, of values—alive.
Reflection: What memory has been resurfacing for you lately? What is it trying to remind you of about what you value most?
2. Presence: The Now That Glows
Presence is the art of inhabiting this moment fully. It doesn’t mean ignoring the past or future. It means refusing to let them rob us of the gift in front of us.
When you savor the warmth of your morning coffee, when you really listen to your child telling a story, when you notice the sunlight spilling across your desk — that is presence. The ordinary glows when we stop rushing past it.
Philosophers and poets have long urged us not to sleepwalk through our days. Presence is their antidote: to wake up, to notice, to let this moment matter simply because it is.
Reflection: What part of today could you slow down enough to savor, not as a step toward something else, but as a gift in itself?
3. Anticipation: The Horizon Ahead
Humans are unique in our ability to imagine futures that don’t yet exist. We daydream, plan, hope, prepare. This forward-looking faculty gives us direction. It keeps us moving.
A student imagines graduation and stays up late studying. A traveler imagines distant landscapes and saves for the trip. A parent imagines their child’s growth and makes sacrifices to that end. Anticipation fuels endurance.
Even small anticipations enrich us. Looking forward to a meal with friends, a new book release, a holiday gathering — these little lights on the horizon pull us through darker days.
Of course, anticipation can tip into anxiety if we let it dominate. But when balanced with memory and presence, it becomes a source of joy. It gives us hope, reminding us that the story isn’t finished yet.
Reflection: What is something on your horizon that fills you with glad anticipation? Can you lean into that hope today?
A Thread Through All Three
Memory roots us in story. Presence awakens us to wonder. Anticipation draws us forward in hope.
Together, they make time not an enemy but a gift. We are the rare creatures who get to live across all three dimensions at once, carrying the past, inhabiting the present, and leaning toward the future.
This is part of the glory of being human. Time is not just something to endure. It is something to savor.
Closing Thought
The treasures of time are not found only in hours and days, but in the way we experience them. To remember with gratitude, to live with presence, to anticipate with hope — these are ways of filling our gift of life.
We don’t get to choose how much time we are given. But we do get to choose how we treasure it. And in treasuring time, we treasure life itself.
