The sun sets on anther day…
I stared at sunset for a while. I thought about things that I shouldn’t think about, in the sky slowly closed in and took away the light. Yes, there was darkness. It was a deep darkness. But there was light a few moments ago.
There are days in life that you just have to think about things. Sometimes they’re good and sometimes they’re not. As I sit here on this day that marks the passage of my birth I wonder about my father and how he felt on this year. As the moments pass for the next 12 months, I will be considering all of the things that he could have thought in his last year.
That’s an intense thought if you think about it. His last year on the face of the earth and I’m sitting here wondering about mine now. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not going anywhere. I like life, life likes me, and I may sing a song from a musical version of A Christmas Carol. Days like this do give you pause and make you consider all the days that you have and all the days that you don’t.
The idea for 29,000 sunsets was born out of my father’s death. I have always been passionate about squeezing the life out of every single day, but on the last year of his life my father, who I had spent very little time within my life, reached out to me telling me he wanted to go on a motorcycle ride and ride the hills of Missouri. We had never done anything like that before together, he had been with others, and I was always left aside. I was elated and excited on the Sunday that I talked to him while he drove home to his bed and breakfast. Four days later I got the phone call that he had passed away. Hopes and dreams, tomorrow’s and the day afters, all gone.
If you think about 29,000 sunsets and the idea that if you knew tomorrow was your last day, what would you do different You will see how this aligns. If you think about your tomorrow’s, how do you want to handle them? How do you want to be remembered?
There are so many things that I’ve wanted to do, but there are many more that I have done. I am told quite often that the breadth of my experiences is pretty hefty. Every day I try to squeeze every moment out of life because I realized there is no tomorrow until it gets here and then it’s still today. Let me put that down again, there is no tomorrow and as you travel through the moments you really have to consider, “what am I waiting for?”
This does raise some complexities that I am considering right now as the night darkens. I’m sorry if this post comes across it even a little negative, it’s not my intention. Instead, I sit here wondering how many days have I wasted? It has pushed me in a new direction and may push me in another direction someday with work, with home, with my life. Do I have regrets? Not really. Instead, I have points in time that I made decisions that weren’t the best for me, but I found a way to work them out. That’s a big part of this statement. I found a way to work them out and I didn’t wallow in self-pity or sit in the corner and let life hammer me down again, instead I got up and did it again.
Many people take the stance that it’s always someone else’s fault, but if there is something wrong on the world it is my fault because it is my world and my perception. I am at fault for everything I don’t like in my life, and it is why I try to remove those things that annihilate my peace. I rise above and try to find a way.
Now I’m sitting in the edge of forever, every new day is a day that I have exceeded my father’s life. Does it matter? Not to me. Instead, I want to drive over top of it and make the world mine and enjoy just one more moment.
Ick, this is long and drawn out and far too many thoughts are slamming my mind right now, but how about I say this. I like my life, and when I don’t I will change it.
Do you see how that works? Today is the first day of the rest of your life. As tomorrow comes perhaps it’s time to do things that you haven’t done before. Perhaps it’s time for change. Perhaps it’s time for more of the same. But maybe, just maybe, you’ll understand that every day is a gift and that we are not on this earth for very long. We are a slice of a sliver of a second in the idea of a world. Let’s make it the best slice we can.
So as the sun sets on another day, kiss that girl or boy, hug that child, climb that mountain, take that class, drive that car, fly that plane, and do everything that you’ve ever wanted to do within reason while making your life fuller, richer, and full of magnificent moments. In the end, it’s your choice, not mine nor anyone else’s. I hope you find your way and sprinkle a little happiness in the middle, no matter what.
Sleep sweet, love life, and happy birthday…