"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust." Regardless of race, gender, beliefs and religion, we all end up the way we began. It is, however, the "to" that matters the most, that space between yesterday and tomorrow - TODAY. How do you live your life today? How many lives have you touched? Do you fail and sulk, or do you fail and still manage to love life? Are you a humble winner, or are you a winner in need of a lesson in humility?
Two people recently reminded me of the importance of "today".
One was someone I had known almost all my life but never really met. Five years of battling cancer finally caught up with her. There was no getting around it. Death is a painful process for both the grieving and the one they lose, no matter how prepared they think they are. Yet, she did more than prepare. She committed the last years of her life not to bitterness but to better-ness, to a life with more meaning. She held her own faith in her heart and gave love and hope and maybe faith again to those who needed them. She was not selfish and gave help even to people she did not know.
The other one was someone who, for a brief time, touched my life in his own, unknowing way. He was a classmate in high school, Freshman year, and left after the second. He was killed recently...The other day, I cut out an article about him. At first, I found it a bit funny - funny in a strange way - that the only chance I got to learn more about him again was through an article in the papers about his death. There, loved ones and friends recounted how his life had been. And somehow, I smiled, because at least, he had been a good person to merit the admiration and adoration of many people. It's just a pity. He would've made it to our high school reunion next December. Maybe he would've come.
They are just examples of people who made a difference, and there in lies the difference - What you do TODAY. I am not sure what difference I, myself, can make. I just know I will try.
Two people recently reminded me of the importance of "today".
One was someone I had known almost all my life but never really met. Five years of battling cancer finally caught up with her. There was no getting around it. Death is a painful process for both the grieving and the one they lose, no matter how prepared they think they are. Yet, she did more than prepare. She committed the last years of her life not to bitterness but to better-ness, to a life with more meaning. She held her own faith in her heart and gave love and hope and maybe faith again to those who needed them. She was not selfish and gave help even to people she did not know.
The other one was someone who, for a brief time, touched my life in his own, unknowing way. He was a classmate in high school, Freshman year, and left after the second. He was killed recently...The other day, I cut out an article about him. At first, I found it a bit funny - funny in a strange way - that the only chance I got to learn more about him again was through an article in the papers about his death. There, loved ones and friends recounted how his life had been. And somehow, I smiled, because at least, he had been a good person to merit the admiration and adoration of many people. It's just a pity. He would've made it to our high school reunion next December. Maybe he would've come.
They are just examples of people who made a difference, and there in lies the difference - What you do TODAY. I am not sure what difference I, myself, can make. I just know I will try.
the idea of 'live today as if it were your last' sounded absurd to me when i first heard it. i thought it was too morbid...but then i came to realize that it is nothing but REALITY...harsh though it may sound..:)
ReplyDeleteas Raine and i would say....CARPE DIEM!
Too morbid? LOL!!!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I feel that "live today as if it were your last" can both be a good advice and not. I guess that depends on how you live your life.
Never try to forget the importance of TODAY. Because it will never come by again.
ReplyDeleteIt's really sad to hear about your schoolmate. Isn't it amazing and yet at the same time horrendous that you see a person from day to day and yet not really know the person at all?
What a world we live in, that we can be so near and yet so far?
i do agree, what matters most is the TODAY. i read in a magazine that today is a GIFT thats why its called the PRESENT. so, since its a gift, we must treasure it...
ReplyDeleteliving each day as if its your last day on earth is one advise i do take seriously. the past i accept, the future i give to the hands of the ALMIGHTY and the present i live like tim mcgraw does in his song "live like you were dying"
"Isn't it amazing and yet at the same time horrendous that you see a person from day to day and yet not really know the person at all?" In a sense, yeah. But I guess that's also 'cause there's not enough reason at the time to know the person. That would be nice, yes, if we could learn more about other people, but if you're interest really isn't in it....
ReplyDeleteAnyway, he was just my classmate for a year and simply schoolmate the next year. Then he left and went to another school. That's the main reason behind my not knowing more about him. If I tried to know more about him back then, for sure, I would get teased (you know what I mean *wink*)... Besides, I did have a crush on him during Freshman year, so you know, that would've been too obvious, he he...
"today is a GIFT thats why its called the PRESENT."
ReplyDeleteHmn...Never thought of that!
And may I just ask what the heck is WRONG with Multiply???? I tried sending this reply several times. It has happened to me many times since the other day. I try to send replies, then a message pops up saying "illegal operation"...Well, you know what that is...I thought it was my computer. Turns out it happens whether I use this compu or not.
Was re-reading stuff and I happened on this...I now know one of the answers, if not THE only answer. I am happy to have the opportunity to make a difference!
ReplyDelete