March 3, 2024

Well hello there Sunday.

Nice to see you again. It’s a been a while hasn’t it. Almost a week in fact. What have you been up to since we last spoke? Nothing? You don’t even exist except on Sundays? How peculiar. No, no, it’s not the same for me. I’ve been up to all sorts.

Like what?

Well, this week I got a sneak peak into a hidden document my mother created for me in the event of her death. Little diary records written to me. Something to remember me by. It isn’t not a huge body of work. (Yet). She wasn’t just writing these for me, but for other family members too.  All while dealing with cancer. It’s a wonder she had the time or energy. Maybe she didn’t.

That’s the thing though isn’t it. When you realise you don’t have the time, you damn well find the energy. Just enough to do the most important things. Even things as simple and beautiful as writing a little collection of letters for others to read after you’re gone.

Death brings the most important things into razor sharp focus.

The world’s most powerful motivating force. A force that so few of us harness until it’s far too late.

Strange, given that we’re all definitely one-hundre percent absolutely without-a-doubt no-questions-asked going to die.

Kaput.

Here one day. Gone the next.

Memento Mori.

This motivational force should be available to all of us.

But instead most of us feel invincible. All our current evidence to date indicates that we are.

Death comes later. Like, muuuuch later. So we think. Except we don’t think, do we?

We ignore.

Act like it’s not going to happen at all. We refuse to talk about it. And as a result we spend our days doing all the things we’d never dream about doing if we only had some idea how much longer we had left to go. Simply living in default mode.

How would you change how you spend your days if, right before you died, you were forced to watch the movie of your life? (Sped up of course)

What would you do differently if you only had ten years left?

How about one year?