We Are All Going to Die Eventually and So Is Everyone That We Love
If today was your last day on earth, would you be at peace with everyone that you love?
Life has a funny way of reminding you how finite our time is on this planet.
I had this painful epiphany one day taking my mother to the doctor for a daily checkup.
During this particular time, we spent so much time at the doctor in three months, that it might as well have been our second home. The hospital is a depressing place to be.
For some reason, I have always associated the hospital with the smell of death.
Maybe I have watched too much television in my time. All I can remember are those images when doctors and nurses come to the waiting room to say their loved ones have passed away or when families spend time with their loved ones in their last moments here on earth.
This always plays over and over in my head like a movie.
Ironically, right across the street from the hospital that I took my mother to for her weekly check-ups was a cemetery.
This didn’t help disconnect those negative associations that I had with hospitals. In the waiting room was a giant window looking directly at the cemetery.
It is as if the hospital wanted you to think about death as you wait for your loved ones to come out to the waiting room.
There was a moment when I looked out the window and stared off into the darkness of that cemetery.
I did what most introverts do at that moment, I got trapped inside my mind for thirty seconds.
During this time I saw everyone that I ever cared about laying in the cemetery with their names on a tombstone. I am not sure why my imagination took me to this dark and morbid place.
It was as if I was going to the future.
It made me aware that I wasn’t getting any younger and as time goes on, people get older, and people eventually will transition from this life.
It was a sad and emotional feeling knowing that I and the people that I love and know will one day be in a cemetery.
This one thought changed the trajectory of how I was going to start approaching life and the relationships I had with friends and family.
Actionable Lesson:
We treat the people we love as if they are going to be here forever. This is why people feel guilty when the people they love or know pass away. They are filled with regrets and “what ifs”. The time is ticking for all of us. We are all on the clock. Treat the people you love like they won’t be here tomorrow because one day they won’t.
If you knew you would die today, what people in your life do you feel you need to cherish? What relationship needs mending? Who in your life are you taking for granted?
