v20.2 - Live Like You Were Dieing

Good morning folks,

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I'm continuing on with my living a better life theme today.  I have been struggling on what areas in "life" I wanted to cover but this morning I finally found my inspiration.

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Initially I had a fairly long musing ready to submit on my laptop and I accidentally brushed the little mouse nib thingy while I was pressing backspace to remove some text and for some reason it did a "Back" on my browser losing EVERYTHING.  Thankfully the thoughts are still fresh in my mind and I will attempt to replace some of my witty points.

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It all started off with my morning alarm radio.  Normally I reach over and hit the snooze button right away but for some reason this morning I let it play.  There was a song on the radio titled "Don't Blink" by Kenny Chesney.  For those who are not familiar with the song, it is about a man who was watching the evening news.  On the news they were interviewing a old man who was turning 102 years old.  The interviewer asked him what the secret to life was and the old man simply replied with "Don't Blink".  The course of the song is the winner here as it talks about how fast life can pass you by.  Here is an excerpt from the course that kind of gives you an idea:

Don't blink, just like that you're six years old and you take a nap and you, wake up and you're twenty-five and your high school sweetheart becomes your wife.

There is a lot of truth in this when you think about it.  I recall times in my childhood where all I could think about was growing up and being big and strong like my Dad.  I remember wanting to spend time with him and hang out with him all the time and I remember feeling pushed away and almost neglected.  As I grew, I found that I actually enjoyed the time away from family more and more and looked forward to not having parents around.  That is when I realized that life wasn't about just being big and strong, it was about living and making it in this world.  My parents did a pretty good job preparing me for my future.

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I'm sure my parents have sat there and thought back on my childhood as well.  One day you're holding a baby boy in your arms and the next day you are watching your baby boy having a baby boy of his own.  Don't blink.

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My second piece of inspiration came this morning on my drive into work.  This is my last day of driving to work as I plan on taking the bus starting tomorrow.  Normally I listen to CBC Radio when I drive into work but today they were talking about things that didn't really interest me so I switched it over to our local Country Music station.  After listening for for a few minutes a song by Tim McGraw came on.  The title of the song was "Live Like You Were Dieing".  This is a song that I don't recall ever hearing before.  It is about a man who is diagnosed with a terminal illness and is going to die.  This is when he starts living his life and does things like sky diving, being the husband he never was and being the father he never was.  The morale of the story is to live life like you were dieing because you'll get more out of it.  Sadly, the truth of the matter is nobody can afford to live life that way.  If I was going to die, I would take a day off work, keep my kids out of school and spend the entire day with them doing whatever they wanted to do.  Of course I can't go ahead and do that today because there are consequences and repercussions that will affect me and my job and I still have a lot of living left to do.

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The whole point of this musing today is to make you think about life and what really matters to you.  In one hand you look back on your life and wonder where the time went.  You recall your childhood, your parenthood and everything else that happened in your past.  On the other hand you look at what you have today and how you can make your life better.  One way to do this is to live like you were dieing (which technically we all are) and spend time with those who you love as much as possible.  I struggle with this (as we all do) and I'm working to make things better in my own life so I can look back on it and have little to no regrets.  Whether you're 25 or 65 you can always change your life and live it to the fullest.  You may not be as agile as you once were, but that doesn't mean you can't be.

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Old age is nothing more than experience and I for one am looking forward to it.  A lot of people in this day in age do whatever they can to stop aging.  They buy creams, they go to doctors and have plastic surgery and all sorts of extreme things.  In my opinion, in this day in age, I'll be happy to grow old because that will mean I've lived life.

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Live life to it's fullest, enjoy spending time with family and friends.  When you weary and achy from a long day, stand up and do something.  Don't grow old in that old rocking chair, you'll regret it.

Take care everyone.

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Cheers,
Al