If this was my last day to be here…

As I sit at the desk at the hospice house I volunteer at, I’m reminded how precious life is.

Death teaches us how to live. It reminds us to make the most of every moment of every day we have.

One of our guests here is unresponsive and nearing the end of his life.

He’s in his late 70’s and has cancer. His older brother and a lifelong friend came to visit today. They were surprised to find him unresponsive since they saw him yesterday and he was still communicating with them.

I started thinking about how many things we get wrapped up in and give our precious time and life force energy to that at the end of life mean nothing.

It’s more important now than ever to be mindful of where we put our attention and energy.

There seems to be so many people giving their attention to fear. Being in fear causes us to find more things to be fearful of.

What we focus on and give our attention to expands; meaning the more attention and energy we give to something, the more it will grow and become a larger part of our lives.

In my morning meditation I’ve started asking myself, “If this was my last day to be here, what is one small thing I would do?”

Some of the small things have been:

Being kinder to myself and others.

Being patient with myself and others.

Laugh more.

Call someone I love and tell them how important they are in my life.

Incorporating these small things makes a big difference in my life and the lives of those in my life.

I’m not sure we can get to the end of our lives and have no regrets.

We can live in fear and judgement of others, or we can live with intention every day doing small things that cause ripple effects that change the world.