Celebrate All That You Are & Have Right Now.
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The conversation continued after our run when we talked about God, and how I feel guilty sometimes that I have so much yet I want so much more.
We talked about how a friend of mine, a super healthy chick, just got smacked with the C-word, Stage 4, and how unfair that was. We talked about how I ache for a witness to my life, and how I wonder if I will ever feel the warmth of a man I love sleeping next to me.
“How old are you?” she said in a stern voice.
“52,” I replied.
“52, huh? Wow, how much time do you think you have left?”
“Uh, uh, uh, I dunno.”
“Then why don’t you stop wasting your time on your past and what you don’t have? Why don’t you fucking celebrate all that you are and have right now?”
She may as well have slapped me hard across the face; her words had the same jolting, stinging effect. Well, alright then. I did not know what to say. I was a little offended; after all we were sharing about our stuff but I was also a little embarrassed.
My running partner that day was a decade plus younger than me, and clearly, much wiser.
This chick is deep — I mean, really deep, an old, wise, kind soul. She is the kind of person who makes you want to be a better person. I have only met one other person like that in my life, and he forever altered me.
When I caught my breath, I realized she was right, OMFG, she was right!
How much time do I have? Do I really want to spend any of my remaining time in anything other than celebration, happiness and pure joy?
Fuck no!
Life is fleeting, short, fast, over in a blink of an eye. We all say this, we all know this, but do we live this? Do we take that into our soul so it changes how we move in the world everyday, or do we rush past, multitask, catastrophize, live in the pain of the past or plot far into the future?
When was the last time you were here, fully here, totally and completely in this moment?
Think to the last time you had sex. Was it hurry-up-and-get-done sex, duty sex, or over-too-fast-for-you sex? Was it unwanted sex, routine sex or did you engage in an intimate spiritual, body-mind session with the intensity and savoring of someone who would never feel that connection again?
Did you kiss your lover like you would never feel their lips again? Did you embrace with such presence so as to remember every nuance in their neck, the curve of their back or hardness of their chest? Did you absorb the safety of their arms knowing you may never feel that again?
Did you know this would be your last chance?
If you knew you were never going to have sex again, would you have done it differently? If you knew you would never see your lover again, would you linger on their lips longer?
What about the last time you looked in a mirror? Did you criticize, bemoan and degrade, or did you look so deeply into your own soul that you felt your whole being wrapped in the deepest, most tender, all-accepting, all-forgiving love?
If you knew you were never going to see your face again, would you memorize every single gorgeous cell while you gazed into your amazing eyes?
When was the last time you were here, fully here, totally and completely in this moment here?
Do it now, be here.
Notice that? Notice the absolute perfection of right now… in this breath, everything is perfect.
See, feel that, why don’t you do more of that?
Maybe it does not take being told you have the C-word to make everything in life more poignant. Maybe it just takes a good friend to ask you — how much time do you think you have left? How do you want to spend it? What do you want your last thoughts to be?
What do you want your last words to your family, your friends, your lover, to yourself, be?
If you knew today was your last day, what would you do?
When life gets stripped down, what would really matter to you? What would you want more of?
The reality is, we are all going to die, yet we do not live that way. We don’t think that this may be the last time we will ever hear our mothers’ voice, or our last drive into the city, our last bike ride, our last steak dinner, our last cuddle with our pet — but it just may be.
They say life is fleeting, life is short, life is fast, it is over in a blink of an eye.
How much time do you think you have left?
How are you going to spend it?
*****
Rhonda Cochrane is a Yoga instructor, personal trainer, life coach, Ironman competitor, athletic coach, lover of all things spicy, and an aspiring author. She has a passion for helping others realize their strength and potential through all forms of psychical movement.
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