Look Around

Waiting for another doctor’s appointment.

Look at where you are

Look at where you started

The fact that you're alive is a miracle

Just stay alive, that would be enough


Hamilton, the musical is filled with little phrases that help me keep moving. I won’t bore you with all of them at the moment, but I assure you my one-woman reenactment of Hamilton is something to behold. 


To say that death is all around us feels like an understatement. I find myself constantly feeling like everything is bitter-sweet. Being alive feels like the bare minimum, but lately, it feels like such a fleeting thing we’re grasping on to. Between the pandemic, war, mass shootings, disease, and old folks simply aging out of existence, we’ve lost so many people. 


Is this grim? Yup. But I’d be lying to you if I didn’t explain that I’m thrilled to be alive. With everything that’s happening, despite everything we’ve seen, have seen, and possibly will see, we’ve made it this far. So I might not be the perfectly healthy human I wish I could be at this specific moment. But I’m alive. And that will simply have to be enough. 


Look around, look around at how lucky we are

To be alive right now

Ayesha McGowanComment