"Life is very short and what we have to do must be done in the now"

Audre Lorde’s words are an urgent invocation to embrace presence and immediacy in our lives. Time is finite, shrinking continuously, and each moment is suffused with potential as well as impermanence. The brevity of life is a humbling reminder that opportunities, responsibilities, and dreams do not wait for the perfect circumstance or the distant future. Rather, each requires engagement and action within the present. Waiting until tomorrow, hesitating, or allowing fear to delay what feels important only serves to squander the fleeting resources of energy and time.

What we “have to do” speaks not just to daily chores or professional obligations, but to our deeper callings, expressing truth, caring for others, working for justice, loving with intention, or creating with passion. There is a weighty moral and existential charge: each of us carries a unique contribution, whether it is artistic, political, emotional, or intellectual. Procrastination becomes a luxury we cannot afford, particularly since the future is never guaranteed. Lorde’s words push us beyond passivity or resignation and urge a discipline of purposeful living.

Acting in the present is also an act of self-respect and authenticity. It means honoring our convictions against the inertia of comfort or conformity. To do “what we have to do” is often to reclaim agency, to use one’s voice, to stand up for what matters, and to foster change, whether within oneself or in the wider world. There is little space for regret in such a philosophy, only the sustained courage to meet life’s brevity with determination and clarity.

Life’s shortness can inspire dread, but Lorde transforms it into a catalyst. The now is not just the only time available, but also the most powerful. Each moment calls us to action, engagement, and to living fully, reminding us that delay is a quiet form of surrender. To honor life is to act while we have the chance.