December 15, 2004
A week ago, my beautiful sister Judith learned that she had leukemia. Yesterday afternoon she died peacefully.
Let me see. That's a wife, a nephew and now a sister that I've lost in the last 20 months. Clearly someone up there thinks that I still haven't got the message! They're probably right - I'm hot on theory but not so flash on practice.
But what is the message? I think it's to do with themes I've so often returned to in these ezines: found your life on what really matters, and relish the present moment.
I don't feel like writing a lot today, so I'm simply going to quote a couple of favorite writers. First, Charles Handy (in Waiting for the Mountain to Move: Reflections on Work and Life):
Yet there I was, at fifty-two, still wondering what I was going to be when I grew up. It’s a nice thought that old age is always ten years older than you are now, but it can lead to postponing the future till you end up as the man with a bright future behind him...
We all know people who live lives of deferred gratification, waiting till they’re fifty, or retired, or just a bit richer, to live where they want to live, do what they want to do, go where they want to go. But how many of them ever get to do it? And how many of them, when they get there, still find it worth all the waiting and the striving and the saving...
Stop compiling a curriculum vitae, a list of jobs and roles, an obituary notice to show St Peter; get on with living as if you were already in heaven. And heaven, for me, isn’t harps and angels and fluffy clouds, but joy and love and laughter and, most of all, a sense of timeless being, at peace with myself and my God...
This play’s for real, I reckon, so today, I say to myself, why not be what you want to become.
Second, Harold Kushner (in When All You've Ever Wanted Isn't Enough):
Nothing lasts. Accept that as one of the truths of life, and learn to find meaning and purpose in the transitory, in the joys that fade. Learn to savor the moment, even if it does not last forever. In fact, learn to savor it because it is only a moment and will not last.
SEASON'S GREETINGS
I've had so many wonderful emails from you this year. My warm thanks for your support and friendship. Best wishes to one and all for a happy festive season.
I will be away on holiday with the children for the next few weeks. Twice-monthly issues of BEYOND THE GRAVY will resume in February.
Read other ezine issues
