Friendly Intensity

The other day, Alice and I were waiting our turn to speak with our health insurance provider.  It was our first time at their new office and it was brand new.  However, they forget to provide privacy rooms for the clients.  I promise you on the Stanley Cup that I was not trying to eaves drop.  But because of the man’s passion and volume (he was upset and large), I found out that besides issues with coverage of mounting bills and some doctors’ rejections, he told the associate (and everyone in the room) that he has cancer. 

I’m old enough to remember when this word, like being pregnant, was whispered if avoided in polite company. 

But he mentioned his condition as if it were athlete’s foot or arthritis. 

Many years ago a friend told me that she had cancer but cancer didn’t have her.  Rose was a fighter and made the most of the few years she lived after the diagnosis. 

All this makes me wonder, at the well here with you, what would you do if you knew you had a couple of months to live?  Where would you spend your time, your money, your energy, your focus?

I ask this because I wish we could all feel both the tenuousness of life as well as its miracle.  To live each day as if it were our last… I know it feels impossible to live that kind of intensity, but why not try? 

In meditation, if you get distracted, bring your mind back to your mantra or to the peace within.  What if we try to live this daily miracle and simply return when we get distracted by bills, bothers or bad news?  Meaning:  what if we lived life well until we died?