I’ve been thinking about grief lately.

It’s one of the few experiences that, in one form or another, none of us will escape. And yet, despite its inevitability, I don’t know that we’re ever truly prepared for it.

Grief can be profoundly unfair. It can arrive without warning, upend everything we thought we knew about tomorrow, and leave us searching for answers that may never come.

And yet, grief can also reveal something profound about the things we value most.

Grief is, in many ways, a reflection of our capacity to love.

The depth of our sadness often speaks to the depth of what mattered to us. And while none of us would willingly choose the pain of losing someone we love, I suspect most of us wouldn’t trade away that love simply to avoid the possibility of heartbreak.

There’s something deeply human about that paradox.

We spend so much of our lives trying to minimize risk, reduce uncertainty, and protect ourselves from loss. Yet some of life’s most meaningful experiences require surrender – accepting that we cannot protect ourselves from heartbreak.

So much of my life revolves around preparing for the future.

As a financial planner, I help people build wealth to sustain them for decades.

As someone passionate about health, I spend an almost embarrassing amount of time thinking about how to improve my odds of living a longer, healthier life.

I believe deeply in both pursuits.

But we can influence our odds without controlling our outcomes.

We can save diligently, take care of our bodies, nurture our relationships, and plan meticulously for the future. None of it guarantees us another tomorrow.

That’s not an argument against planning or pursuing longevity. Quite the opposite. It’s a reminder of what those pursuits are ultimately for.

We tend to measure our lives in years:

Years until retirement.
Years of financial independence.
Years of healthy living.
But what about the things that are harder to measure?

The people we love.

The lives we touch.

The parts of ourselves that live on in others.

Not every loss needs to become a lesson. Some things are simply heartbreaking.

But grief can remind us of what matters most:

The purpose of wealth and health isn’t simply to accumulate more money or more years. It’s to make the most of the life those things afford us.

Take the hike. Share the meal. Make time for the people you love. Be generous with your attention and affection.

In my early twenties, I spent a couple of months living with a farmer in Costa Rica. He had a saying that’s stuck with me ever since:

Un día más, un día menos.

One day more, one day less.

Every day we’re given is simultaneously another day we get to experience and one fewer day we have left.

Keep planning for tomorrow.

But don’t let the pursuit of a better future come at the expense of the life unfolding today.