Life can sometimes be quite crazy — like a circus.

So many ups and downs on the rollercoaster.

We give so many labels to our days.

Good day, bad day, okay day

How was your day?

We ask each other at the dinner table.

If you have a teenager, you might get “whatever” back as a response.

We keep asking though.

Seems like we’re hamsters on their wheels in a cage, except our wheels are elliptical machines.

What if we could treat others as if they were going to die in a month?

We’re all going to die one day.

Most of us hope it’s when we’re really old and surrounded by all of our loved ones with someone playing the harp in the corner.

But in oncology, we see people fighting for a lot more family dinners.

They go through chemo to get more family dinners.

So perhaps thinking about our own mortality can help us be more authentic with each other.

Maybe even really care for one another with more authenticity.

Charles Bukowski said,

“We’re all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing.”

Microstep: Live today as if everyone you know will die in a month. Notice how you are being with people differently. Cultivate that feeling of connection and compassion every day.