By C. J. Stegall-Evans
Since my weekend passed in the blink of an eye and I wonder where the hours go to make their escape. According to Albert Einstein, “Time is an illusion.” I believe this because time just wanders away. Sometimes time is fast and sometimes it’s slow but it always passes. No matter how time meanders through our lives we must not allow it to steal our goals, hopes and dreams.
Time is what happens when we are not awake for our lives. I am a widow and during my undergraduate and graduate levels of religious studies I often encountered classes and situations dealing with death and dying. I have come to respect death as a natural part of life.
I don’t plan dying anytime soon but I am curious, and hate that I won’t be able to come back and tell everyone “I died and it was amazing!” What is amazing is the process of dying, in my class on death and dying and contextual education in hospice ministry I learned a lot about what’s important in life.
I know that older people who have not fully lived have regrets (for all the thing they did not do) and are afraid to die; and young people who have lived their lives boldly face death with a wisdom and bravery far beyond their years. In fact until I encountered these studies and these situations I was not aware I was not living.
If you want to be a writer start writing today. Whatever it is you would like to do start today, not because of fear of death but because life is for the living. Life is so precious and so short it should be lived passionately without regrets. When we are near the ends of our lives we should all be smiling because of all the things we have done that made ourselves and others happy.
A few years ago my only regret was I was not living in Florida and writing. It took me a while to realize I was the only person holding me back. Of course, my family wanted me to live close but at the end of the day my life has to be your own. I now live in Florida and I write almost every day. Is my life perfect? No, but it is my vision of my life, I own it. Am I happy? Absolutely!
So, stop reading and go write your book, sing your song, climb that mountain, do that thing you were meant to give to the world. Be your own reason for smiling.
© 2010 by C. J. Stegall-Evans (All Rights Reserved)
Designed by Tim Sainburg from Brambling Design
