Some people put a lot of meaning in numbers. My kids from a young age would stare at the digital clock in the dashboard to be the first to welcome the alignment of time to 12:34. And a friend of mine reads license plates, converts letters into numbers, and then adds up the total to determine if the number is odd or even.

In the United States of America, we tend to use the MONTH/DAY/YEAR format for writing out dates. Last year, on September 9 (9/9/9), my son declared that he would take the day off school since the calendar would not read 9/9/9 again until the year 2109. I declined to entertain his request realizing that he would use it again throughout his high school years to miss school on October 10, 2010, November 11, 2011, and December 12, 2012.

And then just yesterday, we experienced another rare alignment of numbers when the calendar read 8/9/10. I contemplated for a bit about the rarity of such cyclical alignments. They are somewhat rare. Few, if any, people will recall having experienced two date cycles a century apart. Since I will be 144-years-old the next time the calendar says that, I considered throwing a little party to celebrate 8/9/10 since I’m guessing I’ll be too old to enjoy a large gathering as I approach my 150th birthday.

Then it dawned on me that while the calendar reads 8/9/10 once each century, the day 8/9/10 will  happen only once. In fact, each minute of that day will occur just once. And each moment of every day that we live is a once-in-a-lifetime event, never to take place again. Ever.

Are you really living each moment? Or are you looking at the calendar to some future date or some upcoming event like a wedding or a new job to start your life? Personally, I wouldn’t wait, or you might find yourself approaching your 150th birthday without having risked–or accomplishing–much.