Monday 25 June 2012

6 Months To Live

It is the 1st of July 2012.  You are sitting in a doctor’s office and you have just been told that you have 6 months to live.  You will die in December.  The events of the past few weeks have been ominous, mounting signs that something was very wrong.  Nothing, however, could have prepared you for the way you feel right now.  Time slows down.  You reach for someone’s hand next to you, who is there with you? Is anyone there?

You now have 6 months.  What have you always wanted to do that you’ve never done?  What emotional legacy you will leave behind: What do you need to say to the people around you? What physical legacy will you pass on to the world: Something written, something filmed, something painted, something composed? What song will they play at your funeral?

Really, you are supremely lucky.  Most people never glimpse when their invisible ticking timeline will end.  For most people, the chaos of their lives, journals, computer contents, half –finished projects, To Do lists, debts, bills, possessions will be scattered fragments gathered by loved ones.  The people who love you the most will sift through your unfinished life as they process your death.  Their conception of you will be changed by what they find amongst your stuff and your completion will be up to them. 

You, however, have been given a date, December 31st, if you are brave enough to face it, you can finally bite the bullet and do the things you wanted to do.  Follow me on this journey.  You have 6 months.  What can you do before then?

Death In December

1)      Face Death
2)      Life Goals
3)      Physical Legacy
4)      Emotional Legacy
5)      Epitaph (your life in a nutshell)
6)      Funeral