Mortality and the gift of perspective

✿

Sent by Maxis from my BlackBerry® smartphone

---

From: "Mark's Motivation Mail" <motivation@chattertonworld.com>

Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2012 04:28:34 +0800

To: <Undisclosed-Recipient>

Subject: Mortality and the gift of perspective

We don't know, any of us, how much longer we have on this earth, but we do know that the older we get, the shorter that time is likely to be. Our bodies are not machines that can be repaired and restored endlessly.As we age they stop healing or do so slowly. They wear out, they will at some point break down completely.

 

For most of us it is difficult to imagine that we will one day cease to exist. We think of ourselves as being indispensable, and can't imagine a world carrying on and doing well without us.

 

The great value of coming close to death, by accident or illness, is the gift of perspective. The gestalt of our daily existence becomes distinct, and what is trivial drops away to make room for the essential.

 

And what is the essential?

 

Love in all its forms. We discover that we have no interest in bearing grudges, little patience with gossip, no use for sarcasm. Anger gives way to forgiveness and we wonder at the foolishness of hate which we have been harbouring for a long long time.

 

We look at others at these times as they go about their daily living, judging and misjudging people, getting in a tiff over a parking ticket, complaining yet again about the weather or some other trivial matter and we feel like saying to them "Stop it! Don't you understand? We don't have time."

 

So what do we have time for? As George Washington Carver observed, "I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.

 

We have time to take pleasure in beauty in all its forms;to take notice of the flight of the smallest sparrow, to 'smell the roses'; to imagine and dream, to relish good food and company and to listen to music that we love.

 

We have time to live in thankfulness, which is another way of saying to pray without ceasing.

 

We have time to be present and available, to hear a cry for help.

 

We have time to be still as we lie down in green pastures, beside quiet waters.

 

We have time to refresh our souls and give ourselves to the moment.

 

We have time to be fully alive in the days we have been given.

 

May we live the rest of our lives in such a way that our love outlasts our final breath.