There are many sayings people live by, but the one I hear frequently is:  "You only live once!" The reality is, as Charlie Brown pointed out so eloquently, that you live every single day, usually around 16 hours or more of awake time and over a lifetime that is about 28,000-30,000 days on average. Maybe the saying should be revised to "You only die once!"?

With this in mind, viewing each day as a wonderful, rare gift requires shifting your perspective from one of expectation to one of active appreciation. This involves moving away from the "default human condition" of focusing on negatives, a survival instinct and intentionally slowing down to notice the multiple small miracles that surround us each and every day.

Yes, each day is somewhat fragile, and things can turn in an instant, but knowing you have thousands of days (more than likely) ahead of you, sometimes it is not essential to do everything Right Now. Tomorrow is almost certainly coming. Waiting weeks and months may be unwise, but feeling that urgent need to do everything immediately may not serve you best. So here are some more clichés worth noting:

1. While the past is history, and the future a mystery, the "present" is literally a gift given to you each morning. Embrace the present.

2. Instead of judging a day by what you expected, seek out opportunities to practice kindness, patience, self-compassion, and resilience. The little things may not be as little as imagined.

3. Little Big Things. Sometimes things can feel overwhelming and hopeless. Start out with acknowledging small things, maybe simply your good health? The fact that you can see, hear, and walk?

The good news? Not one single person on earth doesn't age. The not-so-good news? Every single day does indeed matter when you do the math. Let's assume the average person reading this is 38 years old. On average that leaves about 15,000-16,000 days left of living and enjoying, still better than just that one day.