The following is an excerpt from my upcoming book “10 – A Story of Love, Life, and Loss” soon to be published by Balboa Press:
Whatever we face in life – debilitating disease, long-term illness or palliative care – I hope my story reminds you to live for the years, months, weeks that you have left. Don’t waste your days with panic and fear. Use your time to live as fully as you can. Be full of awareness, seeking those things that give you joy and satisfaction and pleasure. Be full of gratitude, not only for the life you have had but for a life that can still be full of abundance and true happiness.
Rather than focus on what you don’t have, focus on what you do have. Use the bodily functions and skills you still have to savour life and all its riches. For life is glorious. Open your arms wide and let life embrace you in a giant two-armed, full body hug.
We all need to be reminded to live life like this, and so, my story is really for all of us. If even the dying can live like this, in the face of certain death, then we all can. For we are all dying. Not one of us is going to avoid that certain end to our lives. So live the rest of your life. Really live it.
When we live abundantly, with arms wide open, we send that positive message out into the world. Kindness, gentleness, respect, raising each other up, optimism, joy, love, gratitude, care, fun, laughter, appreciation, sharing, helping each other through the difficult times, finding the magic in life, all become the natural manifestations of living with that open and generous spirit.
When we live with arms wide open, we invite others in. We drop our pride, our fear, our ego. It is an invitation for others to step over the threshold of our being and join with us in community, camaraderie, friendship, and love. When we live with arms wide open, we act as a conduit for our love, appreciation, goodness, and care of others.
Open arms choose life. Open arms aren’t afraid of death. We are always faced with both, but if we can lift each other up, we need have no fear of death, of failure. And, magically, beyond our logical understanding of it, God (the energy of the universe) moves through our lives, raising us up. We don’t have to fully understand it. We just need to open ourselves to ourselves, to that spirit within, to experience life’s magic and life’s abundant love.
In our lives, wherever we are, whatever we do, live abundantly and love completely. Embrace life with open arms. For open arms equally and simultaneously give and receive all of life’s gifts.