Why I Wear a Broken Watch

This watch is broken.

And yet I wear it every single day. Why?

The date is set to the 9th, the GMT hand the month - November, and the time is stopped at 9:43.

It is that on this day, 9 years ago I lay in agony on the top of a mountain - my legs no longer working. I had just broken my back in 5 places, my spinal cord damaged, a paraplegic.

It's the day my life changed forever, but also the day that I was reborn. I look at my watch wherever I am, whatever I am doing, and remember where I was at that point on the timeline of my life. I remember where I was, where I've been, and where I am now.

It reminds me that time is running out. That time is what we make it. That there will always be less of it, there is a finite amount that we each get as human beings, that wasting that time is a cosmic affront. It reminds me this could all be gone tomorrow.

It reminds me of those that were there for me, those that believed in me. I look at my watch and am filled with gratefulness for all of this experience we call life, the ups, the downs, the fall, and the rise.

If I had to go back, 9 years ago to the day, I would do it. I would relive all of the pain, all of the lessons, all of the amazing things that came from my injury. I would give all of myself once again to rebuilding my body, and would cherish it with all of my heart, my mind, and soul.

And, whenever someone asks me what time it is, I look down at my wrist, smile inside, and reply with "it is right now". That is all that we have.