Is today the day?

In Mitch Albom’s book "Tuesdays with Morrie", Morrie talks about a Buddhist belief that we all have a bird on our shoulder that asks us every day "Is today the day?"

Is today the day your life here on Earth will end?

And if it is, are you okay with that? Would you die with regrets, words unsaid, dreams unfulfilled? Or are you living the life you want to live?

These are all things that we think about at a friend’s funeral, and swear that we’re going to change our ways.

Are you working on living a life with no regrets? Or are you rushing through each day thinking "I’ll get to that stuff as soon as I finish the dishes! "

My answer to the bird today was "I hope not - I still have some work to do!"

Some days I’m more successful than others. I try to be gentle with myself, learn from what happened and try again tomorrow!

I’m putting together my list of things that are important to me, how I want to be remembered, what my vision for my life is. And I want to create a visual representation of that: a collage, a drawing, a word wall - not sure yet what format it will take. I want something that will help me keep it front of mind every day - who do I want to be, what do I want to accomplish?

What are you doing to make sure you’re focusing on the important stuff?

How will you answer the bird on your shoulder today?

(Originally published September 5, 2007 at iwasthinking.ca)