Dear Reader,
A fact of life is that as soon as we are born, we begin the brief or lengthy process of dying. No time is a “just right” time for death because of the many complex variables of living starting with the humanity around us.
I once knew a number of people who ran life in the fast lane. They ran hard. They accomplished a lot. And then boom! It was over, just like that. A heart attack. Cancer. Here and then gone in a few minutes, or a few weeks or months. If it wasn’t immediately, it would be one sort of problem that cascades into another and then another. No one expects it. Fate steps boldly and dispassionately in; Fate is deaf to any brand of supplication. Prayers generally ameliorate yet don’t affect the outcome.
Each believed that they had so much more to do, so much more of life ahead of them. Not so. Sadness and disappointment barged in because there was so much more to do (or so they thought). And yet these untimely, hard stops were meant to be, for reasons no one has ever explained well. The hills ahead and the mountains behind falsely summoned – not knowing that the climbing can, as in so many cases, abruptly end. And then we are left with a legacy of what we have done with others remaining to witness and judge.
Perhaps it doesn’t have to be what I’ve described above. We can make short-term plans for the foreseeable trails ahead. We can make the long plans, that may or may not happen, with low expectations. In a way, our past accomplishments are banked as a foundational legacy. The hopes and dreams which hopefully materialize beyond that can be icing on the cake if they are realized.
Being ready for the inevitable crossing over to the continuum of spiritual infinity makes us feel confident in what was done in our wake. The present and future are bonus deeds we garner as we try to live as beings with purpose – the noble purpose of doing good before departing, secure in the knowledge that what we left in the continuum of physical fi nitude has made it a better place.
PATRICK J. WOOD
Publisher
Author of “Reflections” a new book now available on Amazon.