Does that headline get you thinking? D o you live your life like Tomorrow Never Comes? If you don’t make the best of today, what else is left?
You can learn a lot of lessons when death strikes close to home.
Over the Christmas holidays several years ago, we lost my wife’s only and younger brother to a sudden and expected infection that even the greatest doctors at UCSF could not overcome.
Reflecting on that 19 day ordeal from his admission to the ICU until his Celebration of Life service, is a powerful lesson for all of us as we confront our mortality.
The acclaimed author, Sidney Sheldon, once wrote a book entitled,
Tomorrow Never Comes.
It summarizes what we already know:
What was tomorrow only yesterday is now TODAY.
[pullquote]And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. – ~Abraham Lincoln[/pullquote]
Don’t Live For Tomorrow
From an early age, we’ve learned retirement is something that starts sometime after today.
It was typically earmarked for somewhere around age 65, younger if you’re lucky, today quite a bit longer.
So, we tend to put off many things until we retire… a special vacation … a chance to more actively pursue our passions … a chance to sleep in and let the day unfold without any pressure to be somewhere at an appointed time.
What Else Am I Supposed To Do?
- I have to be at work.
- I have a family to feed, a house to maintain.
- I have no time for play.
- I’ll do that when I retire.
Yet, we realize we may have no time at all. We don’t pick the day we arrive here … and we certainly don’t pick the day we leave this life for a different journey.
So, why the confidence we’ll get to do all the things we love when we retire?
[pullquote]Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes[/pullquote]
Live Like You Were Dying
Now is the time to find a way to achieve a Life of Harmony so you don’t have to wait for the tomorrow that may never come.
That’s the title of a hit song by country singer, Tim McGraw.
He said I was in my early 40’s, With a lot of life before me,
And a moment came that stopped me on a dime.
I spent most of the next days, lookin’ at the x-rays,
Talkin’ ‘bout the options and talkin’ ’bout sweet time.
Asked him when it sank in, that this might really be the real end.
How’s it hit ya, when you get that kind of news. Man what ya do. And he says,
I went sky divin‘, I went rocky mountain climbin’,
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull name Fumanchu.
And I loved deeper, And I spoke sweeter,
And I gave forgiveness I’ve been denying,
And he said someday I hope you get the chance,
To live like you were dyin’.
Create a Life of Harmony. Enjoy Every Day.
You can do this.
You may not get another chance!
Question: What will you do TODAY to live the life you want to lead?
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