One Day To Live - How Would You Spend It?

None of us know when death will knock at our door, yet we continue to live as death will never find us.

A lot of us avoid thinking about death, especially in the Western society, as this topic is considered morbid. I don’t dwell on death, but keeping it close has taught me to live in a way that would not be possible otherwise. How tragic would it be to get close to the time of your death just to realize that you have not lived!

If you knew that this is your last day on earth, what would you do?

This is my list:

I would slow down and take a long look at my husband and tell him how much I loved him. I would tell my children what a blessing they have been. I would call my parents and thank them for giving me this precious yet short life and deeply acknowledge how their sacrifices made my life better. I would call my relatives and friends and tell them what they meant to me.

I would not drive to work on autopilot; instead, I would drive deliberately and really look at the beauty all around me. I would be grateful for this life on the blue dot of planet earth in the great cosmos. I would not act important because I would have the realization that I am even smaller than a grain of sand in a great scheme of things. I would be kind to everyone that I meet. I would see beauty in each interaction without rushing. I would be grateful for every little situation that comes my way.

I would live this day as “nothing to do, nothing to be, nothing to have.”

Do you notice how money, a bigger house, status, stock market, competition, fear, anger, jealousy, grudge, separateness, and disrespect for other lives including plants and animals did not make my list?

What would you cultivate today if you had only one day to live? It would be love, kindness, patience, appreciation, seeing life with the eyes of the Buddha, mindfulness, empathy, and appreciation.

Forget about a day, what if you lived one hour or even one minute of your life cultivating love, kindness, patience, appreciation, seeing life with the eyes of the Buddha, mindfulness, empathy, appreciation in your life, what would your life be like?

Here are some quotes for us to ponder:

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” Henry David Thoreau

“Because I could not stop for death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves and immortality.” Emily Dickinson