I love words, and I love all of the quotes everyone posts on Facebook! A friend posted this today, and it was so timely. In the face of much loss in my life, I don't how true this feels for me--LOTS of good has gotten away, and now I live with regrets for the things I didn't do and the time I didn't take advantage of. But I also recognize that anything in my life that I've tried to "force" or to "hurry along" has NOT turned out the way I'd hoped. I think that, like all things in life, it's about balance.
I was "accused," a few days ago, of trying to "fast-track" my life. I tried to explain that I simply don't want to be like the patients I see, or like my best friend who just died--people who die with regrets over the things they didn't take the time to do or have the courage to say. And I don't want to be like my friend, who also died leaving his friends and family feeling sadness that he didn't take the time to leave with them "parting words," leave them knowing how he felt about them, leave them with closure. I'm going to do everything I can to die with no regrets, and to leave the people I care about with no regrets. I am going to live fully, every day. I am going to tell everyone I know how they make/made me happy, every chance I get. All of this makes me feel alive, and good, and I've not felt those things in a lot of years. It's not about "hurrying to pack things in" to my life--it's just about consciously choosing to enjoy where I am and what I'm doing, and to recognize that if there are things I want to experience in my life then I need to stop telling myself that I'll get to them later. I need to live. Now. (And I need to stop hanging around people who make me feel a need to justify this!)
