Why Life Matters Even Though It Fades

Time moves like a thief, stealing every moment as soon as it arrives. Faces we love, they age, laughter echoes and fades, and even the most breathtaking sunsets dissolve into darkness. Nothing lasts. Not people, not places, not even the stars. And so, the question lingers…

If everything disappears, if love, life, and even memory are swallowed by time, then what’s the point of it all?

I have wrestled with this question in the dead of night, in the silence of grief, in the aching solitude of feeling forgotten. I have felt the weight of impermanence suffocate my heart, making me wonder if anything I do will ever truly matter. And yet, after all the questioning, all the unraveling, I have come to believe something that feels both terrifying and beautiful…

Life matters because it fades…

It is not in spite of impermanence that life has meaning, but because of it. The very fact that we are given only this sliver of time makes every breath, every moment, every heartbeat matter more. And so, let me tell you why I believe this… why I choose to believe it despite struggling to maintain that belief consistently… even when the weight of existence feels unbearably heavy…

Imagine a melody played only once, never to be heard again. Does the fact that it vanishes make it any less beautiful? Or does its impermanence make it even more sacred?

Life is no different. We are here for a moment… an inhale, an exhale… and then we are gone. But within that breath, there is so much. There is love. There is pain. There is the feeling of sun-warmed skin and the quiet comfort of a hand held in the dark. There is the way music can feel like it was written for you alone, the way rain smells just before a storm, the way a single look from the right person can completely undo you.

If we lived forever, would we cherish any of it? Or would we grow numb to it, knowing we had endless time to feel it later? It is because life is fleeting that we hold it so tightly. The temporary nature of things does not make them meaningless… it makes them precious.

If life’s impermanence is unsettling, love’s impermanence is devastating. People leave. People die. Even the greatest loves, the ones that feel like they were written into the universe before time itself, will one day end. And yet, love is the one thing that never truly disappears.

Love leaves traces. In the warmth of a worn coat that still smells like them. In the letters they wrote, the words they spoke, the fingerprints they left on your soul. Even when love fades, it changes you. Even when people leave, something of them stays.

And if love is doomed to end, does that make it pointless? Or does it make it all the more powerful? I have come to believe that love is worth it, even if it cannot last. I have come to believe that a love that burns brightly and then goes out is still a love that was real.

We spend so much of our lives fearing being forgotten. Maybe that’s what truly scares us… that everything we do, everything we are, will one day dissolve like mist in the morning sun. But I don’t think we are ever really forgotten. Not in the ways that matter.

Legacy is not just names carved in stone or histories written in books. Legacy is the way you made someone feel safe when they were lost. It’s the wisdom you whispered into someone’s life at just the right moment. It’s the kindness you gave when no one was watching.

I have come to believe that our existence ripples outward in ways we will never fully see. A smile given to a stranger might be the thing that stops them from falling apart. A story told in the dark might change the way someone sees the world. We do not have to be remembered to have mattered.

But what if none of that was true? What if you could change nothing, leave no mark, touch no one? Would life still matter?

Yes.

Even if you accomplished nothing, even if you were known by no one, your life would still be worth something. Not because of what you do, or what you create, or what you give to others… but simply because you are here.

A mountain does not need to justify its existence. A river does not need to prove its worth. They exist, and that is enough.

And so are you.

We have been taught to believe that meaning must be earned, that we must contribute, succeed, or be remembered for our existence to have weight. But I don’t believe that anymore. I believe that to exist is, in itself, enough.

Here is the paradox… If life lasted forever, it would lose its urgency. If love were guaranteed, it would lose its depth. If we had infinite time, we would take it for granted. It is because we know everything will end that we learn to cherish it while it’s here.

Yes, life is fleeting. Yes, everything fades. But what a gift that we get to experience it at all. That we get to wake up and breathe. That we get to feel joy so intense it makes our chest ache. That we get to love people so much it terrifies us. That we get to …be.

So, no… I do not believe that life is meaningless just because it does not last. I believe it is meaningful because it does not last. And if all I have is this moment, then I will live it. I will feel everything. I will love deeply. I will leave behind kindness in the places I pass through. And when the time comes for me to fade, I will know that I was here. And that was enough.