Pediatric physician Allison Ballantine at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia gave a commencement speech to a class of graduating medical students about the importance of living with presence:

We become so accustomed to life on the hamster wheel of achievement and approval that we just forget. We scamper on and on, chasing the ephemeral promises of “someday…” or “if only I…”

Growing up, I learned a hard lesson about how that hamster wheel could cheat us.

My father was a pediatric surgeon, with tremendous enthusiasm and drive to succeed that encompassed his work, his family, and his friendships. He was a huge influence in my life — he taught me the value of hard work and the satisfaction of a job done right. But on a winter day when he was driving home from the hospital where he worked, his car slid on a patch of black ice, hitting a telephone pole on the driver’s side, killing him instantly.

He was forty-eight and I was eighteen.

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This … serves as a reminder that I cannot live my life on the hamster wheel, waiting for “someday…” or “if only I…”

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What you have is in the present moment, and it is unfathomably precious.

Featured image: Illustration by Maurice Sendak from Open House for Butterflies by Ruth Krauss.