My friend Mischa spent a few days with me recently when her owner, or caretaker, or whatever you want to call her, had to go out of town. While she was here, she slept on my bed, and one night I had a bit of an epiphany. In the middle of the night, Mischa moved, and woke me up. She was staring at me in the dark with what seemed to me to be urgency. Someone once said that the only fault dogs have is that their lives are too short. I thought of how dogs don’t live as long as people, and big dogs have even shorter lives than little dogs. And everything that lives, eventually dies. If I lived a long healthy life, say 100 years, or even 115, that is still not a very long time. The message was to enjoy every day. Every moment… not just get through this day or this week, but to savor it all as though it were our last. It’s that old idea of contemplating your own mortality. It’s good to check in from time to time, I think.