“Tomorrow Is Not Guaranteed”
In the beginning of the year 2019, I went to lunch with a good friend for my birthday. During that lunch she gave me the sad news that her sister in law, Marilyn was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and that at best she will live another year.
Marilyn had always wanted to travel to China… it was up there in her bucket list, and she had booked the trip for her and her husband for that upcoming March. However, she had to make a choice… wether to go on her trip or go into immediate chemotherapy. Sadly but understandably, she chose the chemo. She would never see China.
This shook me profoundly. At that time, I was getting ready to go to Ireland for one month on a solo trip…and I was so looking forward to the adventure of it all. However, I had decided to forgo a trip with a great group of people to Peru and climbing to Machu Picchu. The reason being that that trip was set for only one week after my return from the Celtic island. I didn’t think that I could or should be away for so long. There was also the added expense. In short, there were many excuses… and all of them valid. However, to visit Machu Picchu had always been at the very top of my personal bucket list; so it followed that I took the bad news as providential. Was there a message there for me? One hour later I had signed up for the trip. Everything and everyone else could wait!
I’m very grateful that I have been given the gift of insight. Because of this, it saddens me when I see people postponing trips of a lifetime, staying in bad marriages, bearing terrible jobs, or just waiting for “later”and so on and on. Most people think that they will have time to do it… later. The problem with that is that “later” doesn’t exist. Some think they can’t afford to do it at the moment. Some live for others and live others people’s lives or submit to pressures and expectations set by others. It could be the husband or the wife, their children, their parents, their social circle, or their job. Most live in a cage of their own making. I know this first hand.
The reality is that most of the time if there is a will there is a way to do it. It may require courage, it may be that you must be a bit reckless, it may require to break away from convention and expectations and then deal with the judgements, or it may simply be to just take a leap of faith.
We are all here for one lifetime. We should make the best of it. Tomorrow is only in our imagination. In fact, I truly hope that when my time comes, they will be able to say, “She loved her life and lived it fearlessly… never waiting for “later”.
