by Kayt Kennedy
Singer/environmentalist John Denver takes a dive in an experimental aircraft. A good friend discovers a lump in her armpit and now lives with the C word, as does an under-thirty relative whose benign thyroid nodule turned out not to be. Princess Di dies in a crash. A mother and her young son waiting at a school bus stop are killed when the bus careens out of control and crushes them against a retaining wall.
Kinda gets your attention, doesn’t it? It got mine. Kinda shakes loose that feeling of it-can’t-happen-to-me-at-least-not-yet. It can happen to anybody—at any time, at any age.
None of us knows when our number will be up. We just imagine it’ll be a long time off when we’re old, decrepit, unknowing, uncaring, tired of living, ready for death. And as the old refrain goes, it ain’t necessarily so. So what? you might ask.
So what? We might want to make some changes in how we live. Maybe stop living so carefully, guarding ourselves and our stuff and our time and our energy and our money.
In his book A Year to Live: How To Live This Year As Though It Were Your Last, author Stephen Levine tells about the changes in attitude, in lifestyle, and in rearrangement of priorities of those who get the verdict of a terminal illness. Consider, he suggests, how we might live if we knew we had only a year to live. And consider not waiting to hear a terminal verdict to make some changes, to begin living each day mindfully as if it were all that was left.
We might want to stop waiting for the perfect time, the perfect set of circumstances to do what we know in our heart of hearts we want to do. We might want to stop waiting to let go of grievances and judgments against those we love or loved, live with, work with. We might want to stop waiting to give of ourselves to others, to make our contribution to this planet, to make our mark, to have our presence felt. We might want to stop waiting to learn a new skill, practice our talent, sign up for that course, get that degree, take that trip. We might want to do something, anything, instead of postponing living. We might want to put some life in our lives—something besides the same old, same old.
In the delightful movie, Defending Your Life, after tangling with a bus on the LA freeway, thirty-something advertising executive Daniel Miller wakes up dead in Judgment City preparing to defend the way he’s lived his life. The outcome will determine whether he gets to move on or has to return to Earth to learn to live a full and fearless life.
At a pretrial interview, his defender asks him, “Did you give a lot to charity?”
“What do you mean by a lot?”
“A lot of money. Did you donate things? This isn’t a good or bad thing. It’s just merely my curiosity.”
“Well, I’m sure I could have given more. I gave a lot to people on the street, but you never get a receipt. How much do you have to give? What’s the total?”
“Relax. But there’s one person you were really cheap with—over and over again. I wish you’d been more generous with him.”
“Who?”
“You.”
What would you regret not having done if you knew you were going to die in a year? Whatever it is, why not make a plan for what it will take to do it, and DO IT.
Let it be outrageous, let it be expensive, let it be goofy, politically incorrect, socially unacceptable, of questionable merit, purely hedonistic, mostly selfish, but let it be gratifying, satisfying, heart-warming, adrenaline producing, challenging, wish-fulfilling—something you might never want to do again or something you might want to do more of. But do something!
Why not make an agreement with yourself? A contract, if you will. Something as simple as:
I, ___________________ agree to __________________ by or before this date, ____________.
Signed _____________________
If taking the Avatar Course is something you’ve been wanting to do but have been putting it off, check the Masters Directory in the back of this magazine, call the Avatar Master nearest you, and sign up for their next ReSurfacing workshop or their next Avatar Course. You’ll learn how to clear out any limiting beliefs about yourself, what you deserve, what you can have, what you can manifest. Do it now! What are you waiting for?
Walk around feeling like a leaf.
Know you could tumble any second.
Then decide what to do with your life.
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