If Spence had written this himself, he would have written “Gone on another trip. See you later.”
It brought a smile to my face, and wistfullness inside. I knew the man whose obituary I was reading.
That one line said it all.
I met him in 2000 doing the Census. He brought such an energy with him when he entered the room. You would wait to hear what his latest discovery was, what thought he just discovered, what class he took, what trip he had planned, what humorous tale he had to tell!
He carried a notebook and was forever jotting stuff down.
Life was there to be lived, to explore and ask questions a stranger he never met, he would begin talking and a new friend was born.
I didn’t see him much after our work ended. But our brief time together is one that I will always remember with a smile, he shared his whole spirit and by example alone we knew life was here for the taking!
He took classes, at least one a year to maintain his ‘student’ status to gain access to college priviledges, but mostly to remain young and open to new ideas!
He was a Teacher, but was already retired when I met him, but he taught, he just didn’t get paid. And maybe he did, by all the smiles and laughter that bounced back to him!
A student at heart and willing to learn and share, eager and looking forward to the next idea, the next trip, the next sight to see.
The one personal line in his obituary left me thinking that how nice it would be if we all could write our own obituaries.
What would I say?
If there was a final report to be written at the end of my life, would I make different choices, would I see things differently?
Who would I speak to and what message would I have? What parts would I focus on in the re-telling?
Maybe it should be like an acceptance speech and we can thank all who contributed in making us who we are today.
To live like you were dying, maybe instead Live like you have to write about it!
Do you want to write a boring paper or one filled with delightful ideas and discoveries, one that is humorous and entertaining?
We are living out a Non-Fictional book, you are the main character, you speak your lines, move as you move, you are a living and breathing work of art, a novel in the making!
The exciting part is we don’t know the ending, who will appear in the next chapter, what our lines will be, what the scene will be, what types of emotions will be required, will our hearts expand or shrink, will we grow or get stuck, will new ideas spread our understanding open or will we turn back to our old tried and true ways?
Each day we are writing sentences, book, chapter and verse in the book titled “Life” written daily, moment by moment and each now moment is recorded in another book called time.
We are here for a set amount of time, no one knows the ending, where we will be, what project will be incomplete, what lesson we almost got, all we can do is be engaged until our last breath.
It pays not to worry about when it ends, we just have to keep writing our book until the end, don’t leave things unwritten, dreams untried, things unlearned.
Time doesn’t run out until it does!
The clock is ticking.
We know not the hour,
Hurry and write, adding as much as you can.
What will I add today?
What imprint will I leave behind?
What fragrance of spirit will linger long past my last breath?
Who am I and how long do I have?
Like a the greastest books ever written, the ending is a surprise!
