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Monday, 31 October 2011 |
I have read and heard that
only in having an awareness of death can life have meaning. We have all
probably heard the expression, “Live with the end in mind.” Can we have an
appreciation of how precious life is on a day to day basis only if we are
cognizant of the immediacy of our days, whether we have 90 days left or 90
years?
Years ago, I took a class that encouraged living like today was your last day. “If that were the case,” the course leader asked, “how much time would you spend being upset with people over silly things? Or would things that normally upset you seem silly? Would you take the time to tell the people who mattered to you that they’d made a difference in your life? How many things would you find as flaws in people around you if it were your last day? How much less flawed would our children or our parents be? On a purely selfish level, would you waste your time on these things?”
We were challenged to keep track of our actions for three days, writing down as much of how we spent our time as possible, paying special attention to what upset us. Drivers around us, long lines, people with poor manners… At the end of the experiment, we discussed the possibility of more-joyful, less-stressed, and less-encumbered lives if we remained cognizant of the fact that most of us really don’t know how long we have. Would we be happy with how we had spent our last days? From there we created a context to live by that was consistent with living with the end in mind.
Dorine Colabella Scher
Board President
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