Just last night, a dear friend, sent me an email. He reads the blog occasionally. He is a caring and caring soul. I thought the exchange was worth sharing...
HIS EMAIL
Hey,
I love your writings and thoughts...while I don't always understand or agree it makes me think and grow. For the last year I have been very observant of "events of crossroads" in people lives.
The best way I can explain it is that I am going to be 50 in 30 months....I never thought about being 50 and I am ok with it and think that I am prepared to accept it...like I have a choice. I guess there is no preparing for how you will feel when you get there...kind of like your son going to school and how it feels for him and for you and your wife.
I watched my aunt get diagnosed with cancer a year ago and she managed it with love and care for others but inside you have to be thinking, wow, I never thought I would have cancer...as she clearly had months to live...I wonder...did she think....wow, I never thought about going to Hospice.....the day before she died she arranged to have her entire family...5 kids, 2 brothers, 5 son or daughter inlaws and 12 grandkids..oh yea, and a wheelchair bound husband over for lobster and corn....what I learned from her is she never questioned where she was or what she was approaching...success, illness, failure, birthdays and even death.
So what is harmony or what would the book be titled...I don't know.....You don't hear the bullet?, It felt like I thought it would or do your best, live for today and dream for tomorrow.
Just a thought ...
MY RESPONSE
You my friend are a fellow explorer. I love that about you. There are two such different sides to my dear friend. Never stop searching.
For me, harmony, has been my North Star.
It answers all of my questions. It sets me constantly in the right direction.
To embrace the idea of harmony is to live fully in the now… and to accept that the truth changes constantly… and we must keep making new decisionsin the now…
It also focuses me on all that I can control… and accept what I cant…
I am sad to see my oldest leave or college this weekend, but the reality of all that is right and great about it is so much more powerful than the sadness. It doesn’t mean the sadness isn’t there – its there with so much more that fills my soul and my dreams.
I hope to live a long life. But nothing is a given.
So, I am grateful for now…
And, if I get to live a longer life, I will be grateful for it…
And if I have the opportunity to know when I will die – the idea of gathering all those I love around me and sharing a final meal sounds like a perfect ending.
I am here for now… and every now plays out my unique song…
It sounds like your aunt was a wonderful woman… very much at peace with her death, and her life.
That’s what its about… life and death my brother…. And living all the moments in between... in harmony ;-)
Gratefully,
Nestor