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Abstract

the decline in physical ability? The breaking down of vital organs? The potential lack of mental clarity?</p><p id="81fa">Will you be honest with yourself?</p><p id="a6db">Will you be honest with those around you who love and care about you — or will you try to shield them, thinking this protection is a final gift you can give them?</p><p id="4939">Let me reveal a truth I have learned the hard way.</p><blockquote id="7d70"><p>If you cannot change the outcome of an event by “protecting” people from the truth, you MUST be upfront with them. The more time people have to figure out how they will cope with the loss of a loved one, the stronger that person will become when that death becomes the new reality of life.</p></blockquote><p id="f48f">Truth may be the final gift you can give or receive.</p><p id="7c63">I suspect this is part of the reasoning behind the last rites ritual in the Catholic Church (not my personal upbringing but I have many close friends of that persuasion).</p><p id="7609">If you can clear the air, heal a wound, share the love or extend an open hand — you need to do it. Don’t take a chance on running out of time — because you will.</p><p id="3d31">If it’s not your own personal time that expires, it may well be that of others in your world — others who matter, whose loss will leave an open wound in your soul forever.</p><p id="7bf9">You can’t count on tomorrow looking exactly like today.</p><p id="5583">Death may occur in an unexpected instant — or it may be a long, drawn out affair that robs its victim of life an inch at a time.</p><p id="b868">No one has a crystal ball — but everyone has a bullet out there with their name on it.</p><p id="d1ea">So, what truth do you carry inside of you that must find its voice while there is still time?</p><p id=

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What Truth Will You Tell in Your Final Days?

As the over-used cliche says — It’s later than you think.

Are you being honest about your mortality?

Oh sure, you “know” you’re going to die. No one gets out alive. Intellectually, we all know that basic fact of life.

Yes, you’re going to die. I’m going to die. It’s out there — way out there — at least that’s what the majority of us tell ourselves.

We all have goals, dreams, plans, bucket lists. We have plenty of time to accomplish it all.

Don’t we? Don’t you? Don’t I?

The fact of the matter is — even if you or I live to be one hundred years old (a stretch, I know, but I’m giving us all a bit of leeway) — Even if you are one those lucky ones who blow the actuarial tables off the charts — It Will Not be Enough Time!

The human lifespan is inadequate to encompass all that the human mind is capable of imagining, desiring and yearning to experience.

Let’s jump forward a little — to that day in the near or distant future when it becomes apparent that your days are severely numbered — maybe even in terms of being single digit numbers.

AND — you know or seriously suspect the truth of your eminent demise.

Will you be able to accept the inevitable at that point? Will you be able to acknowledge the decline in physical ability? The breaking down of vital organs? The potential lack of mental clarity?

Will you be honest with yourself?

Will you be honest with those around you who love and care about you — or will you try to shield them, thinking this protection is a final gift you can give them?

Let me reveal a truth I have learned the hard way.

If you cannot change the outcome of an event by “protecting” people from the truth, you MUST be upfront with them. The more time people have to figure out how they will cope with the loss of a loved one, the stronger that person will become when that death becomes the new reality of life.

Truth may be the final gift you can give or receive.

I suspect this is part of the reasoning behind the last rites ritual in the Catholic Church (not my personal upbringing but I have many close friends of that persuasion).

If you can clear the air, heal a wound, share the love or extend an open hand — you need to do it. Don’t take a chance on running out of time — because you will.

If it’s not your own personal time that expires, it may well be that of others in your world — others who matter, whose loss will leave an open wound in your soul forever.

You can’t count on tomorrow looking exactly like today.

Death may occur in an unexpected instant — or it may be a long, drawn out affair that robs its victim of life an inch at a time.

No one has a crystal ball — but everyone has a bullet out there with their name on it.

So, what truth do you carry inside of you that must find its voice while there is still time?