Life gauge...

Friends who watch my ski videos are sometime surprised, sometimes amazed and are also warning me that I should somehow slowdown and take life a little bit easier. Well, I know that sooner or later, my body will slow down (it's already started) and tell me that a steep decline is underway, but until that time arrives in full force, I want to do all that I can to suspend the good feelings and appreciate the “precious moments” and the positive physical feelings that come with it.

Ever since I almost run out of gasoline while driving through the state of Nevada, I have come to appreciate my fuel gauge as a wonderful analog indicator. I can't help but see it as the measure of my life already consumed and a reminder of what is presumably left of it. That later dimension hold different values to different people. My wife begins to panic when there's only one-quarter left in her gas tank and quickly looks for the nearest service station. By contrast, I don't, which probably is a typical male trait.

So, with that in mind, I see my life measured by a similar gauge, with the hand moving steadily towards “empty,” year after year, making whatever is left most precious and worth focusing fully upon. This, in many ways, is why I may be burning the candle from both end when I see that the more time goes, the more left-over moments become increasingly precious!