We just had a blue moon on October 31st– which is the second of two full moons in a single calendar month– and unless you’re into astronomy or witchcraft, you probably didn’t notice or care. I’m not trying to make you care about this luminary spectacle, but I do want you to care about your life.
Huh?
Blue moons are rare and fleeting, like our lives. The last blue moon was on March 31, 2018– two full years before we sequestered ourselves in our toilet paper-lined corona bunkers. What was your life like then? Were you doing work that lit you up? Were you laughing a lot? Were you eating well? Were you feeling alive? In retrospect, were you taking things in your life for granted– like being able to hug your grandmother, shake the hand of a new client, and sweat all over everyone in your Orange Theory class?
The next blue moon will be on August 22nd, 2021, and boy do I get giddy at good reference point. What do you want your life to look like then– ten whole months away? What are you looking forward to by the end of next summer? What would make you feel more alive by that next blue moon?
Life-enhancing things you can do in 300 days
300 days is a hefty amount of time to make some important life decisions to like your life even just a little bit more– like starting couple’s counseling, finding a new job, going back to school, losing 38 pounds, coming out, gestating a baby, going off the grid… you get the idea.
Our lives appreciate it when we make small gestures, too. Maybe you take all of your owed vacation time by the next blue moon, rather than banking unused days into the future (that you might never get to take… and also, who wants to die with a bunch of unused vacation days?). Maybe become the kind of person who walks 2 miles a day, racking up 600 miles (1.2 million steps!) by the next blue moon? Maybe take one night of booze off per week, or eat just half a sleeve of Oreos instead of a full sleeve, as a new cookie-eating policy. (I’m being for real.) Maybe donate $50 a month to a cause you love, knowing what a difference $500 could make? Maybe call your parents 15% more between now and the blue moon?
Last thing: if you’re willing to get really nerdy with me, there’s such a thing as a double blue moon (don’t make me bore you with the details) (but it involves two blue moons a year, and happens only a few times in a century), and the next double blue moon will be in 2037 (i.e.: an astronomer’s wet dream). What do you want your life to look like in 17 years, if you’re lucky enough to still be alive? And what small steps can you take now to make that version of yourself gradually get there?
Let’s go out there and make the whole “once in a blue moon” thing work for us. Let’s live like we mean it from now until the lunar events in 2021 and 2037… and beyond.
