You don’t know if you’re going to live long enough to slow down … and discover the truth of your spiritual identity. You may not be destined to live a long life; you may not have 60 more years to discover and claim your own deepest truth … you have to live every day as if it’s your last, because one of these days, you’re bound to be right. Anne Lamott (To University of California, Berkeley graduates, June, 2011)
The day before he was assassinated, Martin Luther King Jr. preached: “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life; longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will.”
In reality, everybody is terminal. Cancer reminds me to take full advantage of whatever time I have right in front of me and manage it wisely. The membrane between this world and the next is so thin it’s almost translucent. Before it tears I want to follow the Lord of both worlds as closely as I possibly can. On the other side, time doesn’t seem to be an issue, but over here clocks tick every second and calendar pages turn over every month.
When I was first diagnosed I worried about dying before my story was finished. I had, and still have, a number of things I want to achieve, people to reach, and chapters to live. It’s not so much the dying part that bothers me as living long enough and well enough to complete my story and complete it well. I believe that God will do his part to give me enough time to do everything he wants me to do. I may not have enough time to do everything on my to-do list, but I think I can still do what’s on his.
[Excerpt from my memoir: THE OTHER END OF THE DARK]
barney wiget 