We don’t get to choose our time. Death is what gives life meaning. To know your days are numbered. Your time is short.

– The Ancient One, Doctor Strange (2016)

This quote means a lot to me. They aren’t the happiest or most optimistic words, but they mean something. They speak the truth, that we need to stop spending all our time preparing for the future and live in the present instead. Our minds are always preoccupied; thinking about what we have to do next, what we need to achieve. We set goals, we reach them, and suddenly that’s not good enough for us anymore.

It’s about spending time in the moment. It will make us happier than spending our whole lives preparing for the next thing until there’s nothing left to prepare for. We procrastinate too much. We push things aside; things we love and sometimes even people, and for what? Our days are numbered. Death is what gives life meaning.