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Five Days Left
- The great teacher and writer Leo Buscaglia used to give his students an assignment every year. They were to write down what they would do if they suddenly found out that they only had five days left to live. Their answers varied from watching the sunset from a beach or a mountaintop to taking the vacation they always dreamed about to telling their parents and families just how much they loved them. When they had all read their lists to the class Leo would give them a wonderful piece of advice. "Why don't you do these things now?", he would ask.
Why don't we do these things now? Why don't we stop working and go outside to watch the sunset? Why don't we take a vacation from acquiring things and spend some time just enjoying being alive? Why don't we go up to our moms, dads, wives, husbands, brothers, sisters, grandparents, children, and friends and tell them just how much we love them? There is no good excuse not to do these things. They are what is truly essential about being alive. At the end of your life you are not going to worry about how well you did in your career or how many things you bought. All you are going to be asking yourself is did I live, did I love, did I do good in this life, and did I help others when I could? It is these things that matter in this life and the next. No coffin has ever had a U-haul behind it.
Let us all make that list now. If we only had five days left to live what would we do? Then let's start doing that list today. God doesn't want us to start living and loving on our deathbeds. God wants us to start living and loving today. God doesn't want us to waste our lives on money and insignificant things. God wants us to live as if everyday were the last day we had here to choose and share love and joy.
© Joseph J. Mazzella