Days That Count

700 days is how long I've been married.

10238 is the number of days I am old.

19165 days until I reach the average life expectancy for a white American female.

2738 Saturdays until I reach the average life expectancy for a white American female.

719 days until I am thirty.

208 days until my husband is thirty.

30 days until my second wedding anniversary.

39 days until we leave for Australia.


I have an app on my iPhone that keeps track of these things for me. I like to look at it from time to time. Sometimes just to see the numbers grow and shrink and sometimes to get some perspective on things. I also use this app to keep track of things like: how long since I've been to the doctor, how long I've worked somewhere, how long until my next dentist appt, or how long I have left to return an item.

Could I live my life without this? Yes, quite happily. Yet, I still enjoy the frivolousness of having an app that keeps track of it for me.

The number of Saturdays is something that I added recently because of a story I heard on the radio. I realized in college how quickly the year goes by when you think of it in weekends but this story talked about the number of Saturdays left until you reach the average life expectancy.

Here is the story. The premise is that a man thinks about how many Saturdays we are expected to live (on average) and counts out how many Saturdays he has left. He puts that number of marbles in a jar and takes one out every Saturday from then on. The story is worth reading but his point is that when you watch your time go by you are likely to spend it more wisely.

Our lives on Earth are so short, particularly when compared to eternity. It's easy to count the days away but the important thing is to make the days count.