Living like We're Dying

I was listening to a song tonight that said "there are two kinds of trouble in this world--living and dying." Somehow it struck me to the core.

Dying seems like a horrible option. I don't care how long we've lived, or how much we've suffered, the struggle to let go of this life cannot be an easy one. The life force is so strong, that we will go through many things, in hopes of staying alive.

I remember reading Tuesdays With Morrie, and thinking how much Morrie fought to remain on this earth, when almost every pleasure had been taken from him, and he was able to do nothing more than lie in bed. Yet he lived every moment of his slow death. Having once been a professor, he continued to teach a favorite past student. But the lessons weren't the textbook variety. They were life lessons. Lessons about how to live, and how to die.

Many of us don't learn these lessons until we are actually dying. But then it's too late to go back and redo the story. It is what it is.

Here's a novel concept--what if you were to live like you were dying? How would your life be different?

Most of us have been there momentarily, when we've gotten bad news. Not long ago, I was told that I could have kidney cancer. Many days passed before the test. And then there was the actual day of the kidney x-ray, with the contrast material. Then once again, many days passed waiting for an answer. Waiting, and waiting, and waiting for the results. In a way, life came to a standstill while I waited. But I was doing a lot of thinking.

Maybe you've been through something similar. Suddenly all the things that seemed so important--aren't, and all the things that didn't--are. Petty arguments are of no consequence, and money and material possessions don't mean a thing.