Today I'm reminded of the importance of today

I can't believe I'm 34. Yesterday was when I graduated from university, right?

Nope, that was 9 years ago.

What have we done in these 9 years? Loads, actually, but it might not feel that way because we're always striving for more, aren't we?

We conveniently forget that we got married, successfully started a totally new career unrelated to our field of study, managed to move and settle halfway across the world, had a baby, became parents, and enjoyed half a decade of non-tropical, four-seasonal weather together.

Instead, in our minds, we only see the things we do not yet have. A big house by the ocean, the magical ability to only work whenever we want, and time to explore every vague interest we have.

Today I had lunch with my wife Charlane in a new Chinese restaurant in Düsseldorf. The owner is an earnest guy. We spoke a bit and learned that this is his first restaurant business and it's been hard to earn a decent living from it.

Because I've been trying (quite hard) recently to be a little less uptight about 'making good use of my time', I asked Charlane whether she did anything to stay more present these days.

Her answer surprised me. 'No, not really,' she replied. From her eyes I could tell she wasn't at all puzzled about why I was asking her about this. She knows me well.

Then she told me a story about one of her friends.

Her friend and her husband are nearly forty and they have a one year-old. They want to take a family photoshoot to remember this precious period of their new lives as a family, but she seems exasperated by how many things aren't ready yet:

• Their baby's hair is still short and it probably won't look nice in the pictures.
• She wants to lose a little more weight before the photoshoot.
• She hasn't bought the clothes that really wants to wear for the shoot.

Charlane looks up from her food and says to me, 'I think by the time they have done all that that and they are finally ready, their child would have grown a lot and they would have missed a great set of photos to remember the early days by.'

This is why Charlane and I just set a date as soon as our daughter's birthday comes around each year for our family photoshoot. Adorning our walls in the apartment are photos from when she was 1, 2, and 3 years old.

Our daughter had very little hair at 1 year old too, but I actually love that it shows. When am I going to see my daughter with those cute baby hair on her head again?

There's only one perfect time to do something and that is today. When your hair, body fat percentage, fashion sense, bank account balance, and your child's purity are exactly as they are. In today's state.

I snap eye contact with Charlane and let my heart speak, 'I am so glad this is one thing we never disagree about.'

I make a mental note to come home to write about how I felt and publish it, even though I don't know who else this might mean something to. Thoughts, like baby hair, are fleeting. I'm not going to wait for them to disappear.