Living Life to the Fullest

I hear lots of people talk about what they would do if they had a day, a week, a year to live. But often times when we’re told we have a day, a week, a year, we’re told because we’re sick, our expiration date is coming up and we’re at risk of spoiling. And in your last day, week, year, when you’re sick, is not necessarily the time to jump out of planes and visit Paris and climb mountains. Your precious few last moments are usually spent in a bed with tubes attached and machines sustaining you. You try to get your affairs in order and you try to spend what ever time you can with your loved ones while trying to ignore the inevitable death floating about your head. Then your loved ones are left lost, missing part of their own identity, struggling to maintain day to day, struggling to find out who they are without you.
I hear lots of people talk about what they would do if they had a day, a week, a year to live. I see less people living as if they knew their expiration date, taking advantage of life while it stills pulls strong in their veins. And I’m guilty of this far too much myself. How many times have I blown off a party or gathering because I had to work late or was so tired from work that I could barely keep my eyes open on the drive home. How many times have I let my boss make me feel pressured to have a “perfect” branch, that there’s no excuse to not to have a perfect branch (not possible by the way), and I stay ‘til 9 or 10 at night doing paperwork that I couldn’t do during the day because I was trying to be 3 different people. I barely remember what some of my friends look like anymore, I never get to see them.
Can one really live life to the fullest? Is it in our genetic code to be able to live each day, each week, each year as if it were our last? Are we so fearful of death that we think we will live forever, denying the inevitable and in that denial of death avoid life? Can we embrace simple joy in what ever we find? Can we live guilt-free and regretless?
Posted by Konnie Collins