An Unexpected Reminder of Our Shared Fate
Tonight I logged on Facebook, and I read someone that I went to college with who was born the same year as me that she died. And my first question was, “What happened? How did she die? ” Oftentimes we ask that question because we’re searching for our own mortality. Could that thing that happened to them also happened to me? Yes, but of course! What I know to be true now at 41 is that life, this thing called life, we wish that we were exempt from some things, but the reality is, life touches everyone. The impact is the same for everyone. We experience our emotions, and we cope with them, albeit differently.
Mother Nature while beautiful, is also fiercely unpredictable. And beautiful. And strong. There are solar eclipses and serene sunsets, yes. But there are also monsoons and tornados and wildfires and earthquakes. So, embrace Mother Nature and all that she has to offer. Let the sun kiss and caress your face. Let the breeze caress your skin. Let a stranger’s smile titillate your soul. Let that fine man, the one that smells good, let him walk by and smile at you, and smile back. And let your hearts soar.
Returning to the Earth: The Cycle of Life
Embrace Nature and everything that it has to offer because one day we will return to it. In Christianity, we say “Ashes to ashes and dust to dust”. In Islam when someone dies, they say something similar, something beautiful, something poetic, something poignant: “We belong to Allah and to Allah we shall return.”
It’s the cycle of life and nothing— not one thing— can change it! The only thing that we have on this earth is life and one thing that is promised to each of us is death. So no, while I don’t want to die of cancer, I do know that I am going to die. I do know that you, my dear reader, are going to die. And so, the question that we have to ask ourselves is:
How do we want to live this one precious life that we have?
One is such a small number, isn’t it? One life. What do you want your legacy to be?
After you breathe your last breath, how will people speak about you? About me? About us? Will they say she lived boldly and courageously, or will they say that she was timid afraid? Or will they say that you lived finding God by facing your fears? Will they say that you strived? That you achieved? That you became? Or will they say that she lived small? She played small.
But of course, no one wants to speak negatively of the dead and so they won’t ever say that you were in underbeer (underbeing but in past tense) or an underearner, but they’ll say it politely. They’ll throw a little razzle on the dazzle.
But what I want for myself what I want more for my nephew than I do for myself is to be big. To be the right size. I don’t want to cower, and I don’t want to lord over anything, but I do want to be exactly how God made me. And God made me big and beautiful and bold and courageous and strong and mighty and powerful and wise and thoughtful and caring and patient and loving. And God made me light! I am light.
Or, as my coworker said to me, “we need your brightness to blind us from the darkness things. Is that a thing to want to be blinded by brightness in lieu of staying in darkness?”
Being a Beacon of Light
I am Light, and other people recognize the Light in me and honor and see the Light in me. And I recognize and honor the Light in other people no matter how small or dim the light is burning, I see it. Not because I have to but because I want to! Because I want their Light to shine and burn in the brighter.
But I can only do that when I recognize the light in them when I speak positively to them when I big them up and don’t tear them down. So, I honor their light by naming it, by saying exactly what it is.
Speak things as though they were, not as though they are.
Loosely from Romans 4:17 ERV
And so, I speak to their potential. I speak to your potential. I speak to our potential. Who we were created to be, not who we are in this moment of shame, brokenness, trauma, and hurt. I speak about us as though we were, not are, knowing that in us exists the same. The same courage. The same power. The same deep knowing. The same ability. The same endless possibilities. The same potential. But I don’t want to die with potential! I want to die knowing that I have done the work that God has called, created, and purposed me to do.
So now, when I hear that someone dies, I hope I won’t say or question or even ask myself, “I wonder what happened”? But instead, I’ll say, “I hope they lived their life in a way that honors and pleases them. That honored and pleased with them.”
I don’t know how much time I have left on this earth, but I do know that with the time that I have left I hope and pray for the courage for the power, for the energy, purpose, endurance, for the patience, for the love, for the fuel, to do more, to be more, to become more, to have more.
I aim for the rest of my days and to live them as though I have a terminal disease because the terminal disease with which I have been diagnosed is called life. My hope, my prayer, my fervent, deepest burning desire is that I live each day as though it’s my last because if I am blessed to see 101 like my grandmother is then hurrah! And if I am not, I can only pray that I will live each day purposefully and intentionally with love and kindness and patience.
I am love and I am loved.
Purposeful Living
No matter how much time remains in this life, I hope that we will treat it as though it is precious. As though it is unique. As though we have only one because we do. Whether I have 33 days or 33 years or 64 years left in this thing called life, I pray to the God of my understanding and hope you pray to the God of your understanding that you will live, that we will live boldly and courageously. Each day one step at a time taking one step closer to our vision, our dream. One step closer to the life that we desire. Not because we’re deserving because no one is deserving of anything in this world. But because we are all worthy of everything.
God, thank you for awareness. Thank you for courage. Thank you for faith. And thank you for the work that we do by and because of our faith. Thank you that we are growing so that the very thing that we are working towards, when it arrives, we are strong enough to carry it and to maintain it. Thank you that when it comes, we are ready to warmly welcome and receive and to multiply it and share it. Not only enjoy it for ourselves but to share it with others. In your name, we pray. Amen.
Enjoyed this post? Check out the beginning of this two-part series, The Inescapable Journey: Embracing Life in the Face of Mortality.
