Life Is Short
What are you waiting for? Yes, you. What if you knew your life would end at sixty, sixty-five, or seventy? Would you be doing something different? Would you be filling every moment of your day with something special? Whom would you call? Whom would you love? Whom would you forgive? What would you let go of? What would you change?
I am feeling very passionate as I write this, holding back tears from hearing the news this morning that I have lost a friend. All loss of life is shocking, but this one really got to me because I did not have a chance to really let this person know what our friendship meant to me. I am sad but feel blessed that this person was in my life.
Life Is Short—Consider Your Legacy
Clichés such as “Life is short,” “Live every moment,” and “Tell the ones you love how much you love them” come to mind, but what I think is What am I leaving my loved ones? What sort of legacy will they share about me and how I lived my life? That scares me more than anything!
I am sure that what people think about when they are passing isn’t their car, their house, their handbag collection, or the fancy vacations they had. I think how we treat people and how we make them feel will live on forever. I have lost a lot of people in my fifty-nine years, but this one hit me hard, maybe because of my friend’s age or because it reminded me that life is precious. Souls come and go, and we never know when our time will come.
Life Is Short—Love Is Forever
I believe in energy, so I never think of anything as being completely done. All we know for sure is the ones who loved us will miss us terribly when we are gone. They might even feel some guilt about the fact that they move on a little each day. The love in our heart remains, and we carry that forever.
I write this post today for selfish reasons. I need to get everything I feel—sadness, guilt, overwhelm, and shock—out of my head. I really enjoyed this person. One of my fondest memories is of us walking around New York; we found a baseball field where kids were practicing, and we sat in the bleachers watching them play. It was in that moment that I truly felt connected to this person because for the first time, my friend shared sad childhood memories with me. It was a great conversation with beautiful pauses and lots of listening as we watched the kids throw the baseball around. In that moment, we became close friends.
Relationships come in all shapes and sizes, and they have something profound to teach us if we are aware and open to learning. What do the people in your life have to teach you?
Life Is Short—Leave Clues
I was interviewed a lot for a book I cowrote with my grandfather, called Son of a Basque. (Thank you, Grandpa, for leaving behind clues about your life that you did not share when you were here on earth. I enjoyed turning them into a book.) What I spoke about most was leaving behind clues for generations to come. Death always reminds me to write more and leave behind clues for my kids, their kids, and my grandkids’ kids.
What will you leave behind for your loved ones? Have you ever thought about this? Would you leave a journal or a note to the ones you love? I read something on social media about a man who paid a florist in advance to have flowers sent to his wife weekly or monthly so she would always get flowers from him after he died. I thought, How beautiful, thinking of your loved ones and leaving something special behind after you die.
It always stuck with me because I think it is important to reflect on and prepare for how we would like to be remembered. I want the generations to come to know that I existed. More importantly, I want them to know at least one great thing I did.
Life Is Short—Do Something Great
What is the one great thing you want to be remembered for? Have you ever thought about reflecting on and writing about it? As I reflect on my friend’s memory while writing this post, I am thinking of the conversations we had, the walks we took, and the time we sat in the bleachers talking about our childhoods. These are the memories I want to create with the people in my life whom I love. I am not thinking of the restaurants we ate at or the material things.
I will share that it was not always this way. I was consumed for a long time with nonsense and material things such as shoes and bags. So I am reflecting and writing this post to remind myself to stay on my path, be of service, and create a lifetime of memories.
Cheers to you, DebDave. My heart is sad today. Until we meet again in the bleachers in the sky.
