Last night I went to visit some friends
to say prayers and reminisce about their teenage son
who just died last week.
He died of leukemia after a
long hard battle with the disease.
As people shared stories about Steven, a common thread appeared.
It was one of a caring individual, empathic, funny and warm,
a person who strived to achieve a lot in his short life,
and reached a Christ-like purity by helping others even as his own life slipped away.
What would I do if my days were numbered?
If I knew I only had a few years to live,
what would I do now? Would I choose to do things differently?
What if I only had a year?
What if it were only weeks?
It is like a game in the abstract,
but this was no game, this was the reality that Steven and his family lived with.
Death is inevitable,
but if I try to vision how it will be when I die
the image is one of being vital and healthy until
one night I go to sleep and I don't wake up the next morning,
like how my Grandma Birdie died.
I don't envision the slow debilitating death that cancer brings.
My big wish is to
leave with no regrets
And to live my life in a way that,
if today were the last day,
I will be at peace with my life.
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