Live Like You Were Dying

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love, 1963

Unfortunately, this is a week where some truly amazing people have died.  My friend's son-in-law died yesterday.  As you may have guessed from my blog a few weeks ago when he went to Hospice, his death was not unexpected.  I don't want to talk about it.  I want to talk about his life.  He was diagnosed with a truly rare type of cancer 22 months ago, a type of cancer for which the survival rate is measured in months, not years.  By months, I mean less than 6.  Yet, he survived and truly lived 22 months.  This man refused to allow the cancer to define him and to limit his life.  In fact, he crammed as much living into his last 22 months as the cancer would allow - canoe race, trip to Disney, spring training, his Celebrate Life party, taking his daughter to her first real movie, weekend away with his wife and more baseball.  Sure, we all knew he had his bad days, his angry days, his feel sorry for himself days, but given all he was living through, they were surprisingly few.   Every time I hear Tim McGraw's song. "Live Like You Were Dying", I think of him.

How many of us tell ourselves that when the kids get older, when business is better, when I retire, I'm going to do all the things I've really always wanted to do?  What if that perfect time never comes?  What if the day after you retire, you suffer a stroke like one of my friends?  What if you're too old or too sick by the time "whenever" comes?  What if tomorrow is the day you find out you have months to live?  Will you look back on your life and say that you lived it to the fullest?  Or will you find out you were just marking time?  Are all the things that seem so important to fight over now really that vital, or would it have been better to compromise and move on?  

More importantly, have you thought about your Bucket List, those things you want to make sure you do?  Have you written it down?  Have you thought about how to make it a reality?  Well, why not?  We only go around once in life, and I sure hope that when my life is done, I can look back and say it was a full life and I have no regrets.  I think my friend's son-in-law did.  RIP.