If you knew when you were going to die would you change your life?

I know that my experience as a teen in life was that I was like Superman or Ironman in that I was immortal until mortality stared me in the eye. I will never forget a tragic day in my life when we had taken my dad into our home after my mom’s battle with cancer had finished. We had chosen to take him along with us for a walk with our dogs. It was one of those days that I truly would have changed if I had the power.  We chose to include my dad, who now had Dementia, on a canal walk. The unfortunate choice was that we parked across from the canal on a busy road. The end-result that day was that 2 of our little dogs got scared and ran into oncoming traffic and sadly were hit.

I’ve had a few experiences in life that pushed me to the edge to stop living for someone else and discover my God given passion and path. The challenge is that there always continue to be too many voices in the crowd that influence me to live life safely instead of ‘throwing caution’ to the wind and living as if today could be my last day lived to its’ fullest. The incredible mystery of life is that all of us are different so the path less traveled we pursue is different from our family or friends. The opportunity is to choose to engage in this adventure called life and not allow yesterday to stop you!

I had read a post from a friend who had raised the question of whether anyone would live differently if they knew they only had a few years to live? As I’m watching a very fascinating and heart wrenching movie, ‘Gifted’, it too brought out the challenge who or what should define your life? It’s so easy to live according to the status quo and allow someone else to define greatness for your life! The bottom line of the movie was that a genius child at Cambridge was pushed to the edge by her Math whiz mom to solve one of the supposedly unsolvable mysteries in mathematics. The tragic family story was that the mom stopped this little girl from having a life outside of differential equations. Ultimately, she also has a little girl and is desperate to discover life outside of higher math.

Now, the older brother, also a genius type, is approached by his struggling math whiz sister about her life struggles. The tragedy is that this young mom with so much potential had lost her life and gave up her most precious possession, her young daughter, to her brother. The brother had already given up the life of a Professor in reaction to his mom’s pressure to be successful according to her pathway. The sad news is that this young mom takes her life and leaves her daughter for her rebellious brother to raise. The goal of the uncle now is to live a normal life by his standards so that his niece doesn’t experience her mom’s personal meltdown.

The battle unfolds between grandma and the uncle of this incredible girl as to who determines her life journey! The movie unfolds with what is ultimately a win win for the little girl, her uncle and grandma. Is it possible to be a math whiz genius child and still be allowed to go play on the playground with your peers? Much as I go from mid-life crisis to now the ‘golden’ years I see the importance of not waiting until tomorrow to do what makes my life have meaning and importance.

I know that the notion of paying it forward and sacrificing oneself for another is much talked about! The opportunity is to choose to live this way and pursue the path that truly impacts the world around you. The struggle comes when the crowd around you draws you back to living an ordinary life. The choice you must make is to do ordinary things in extraordinary ways!

The life and death of my parents is still ever before me and have taught me to value the moment and never be unwilling to dive into life. My life motto has been to live out Jesus’ own passion of coming to give me the ability to live my life to the fullest without holding anything back and sharing this life calling with as many as possible!