It would presumably be lazy to just copy and paste the entirety of Queen’s ‘These are the Days of our Lives‘ in as my response to this?
Thought so. I guess I’d better at least try and unpack a little bit, and not just rely on how I can’t hear that song without crying just a little.
But I’m probably going to be just as cloyingly sentimental, don’t worry.
The thing is, I maintain the my best days are now, and they’re only going to get better, forever and ever, until I die. (Which is not forever, but that’s okay).
The cliche is school, right? Those are supposed to be the best days? I can’t imagine that being possible. Childhood is an exciting time, and a weird mix of adventure and security. A lack of worry, combined with a complete unabiding terror of everything. Enough to make it all exciting.
You’re figuring out who you are, which is an adventure. You’re becoming a grown up. You have all that time for your friends and family.
I mean, yeah, that’s all kind of true. But I don’t see how that stops once you leave school.
Particularly the really good bits. The figuring out. The growing up. The loved ones.
Am I living my life that differently to other people?
I think it’s just a matter of perspsective.
Every birthday (and most days, for that matter) I look at myself and find myself fuller than I was a year before. Life has become a constant voyage of learning about myself, working out how to be myself better. Appreciating new aspects, learning to deal with different problems.
If I am a better me than yesteryear, then surely this day is better. Even if I’m stuck indoors in gorgeous sunshine because my body has given up on me, demanding that I slow down and give it some love (not like that…I get plenty of that…at least from myself).
And I can’t even begin to imagine what tomorrow will be like.
If you look back for the best days, then you’ll miss the ones you’re living right now. If that doesn’t feel true for you, then maybe you need to look at life differently. Look into yourself and find what it is that makes you you.
Nourish it. Let it feed and grow. Let it be in charge for a little while. That’s what will make you best. And if you’re best, then your world will be best, because you’re the only one looking at your world.
The only one looking at your days.
These days are all gone now but some things remain
When I look and I find no change
It’s that thing that remains static that you love from. That makes the days. It’s that love that binds you to the people and world around you.
That’s what makes the days.
Be inside yourself, and from there, bring love outwards.
Dear days, (and dear Freddie):
I still love you.
—
Illustration by Helen.
