Music Series: If Today Was Your Last Day...

Hello and Blessings to you all! I have found some more inspiration for what I think will be a most enjoyable series...a music series. Music is pretty important to J and I. He excels in writing, playing, and singing music. I excel in listening to music...that’s about it. But I get much enjoyment from a song that has lyrics that really speak to people. Because the list of songs like this is basically limitless (because there are always new ones coming out every day) this series will have no limit as well. I would also like to remind everyone that you are all still welcome to write a blog and send it our way. You’ve seen that we have had a couple writers, besides ourselves, and we would love to hear from others that may have something on their hearts. Maybe you even have a song that you would like to share and write about. Our email address has not and will not change. It’s thegsight@yahoo.com.

Now to the first song of this series! I chose Nickelback’s “If Today Was Your Last Day”. Truth be told, Nickelback has been one of my favorite bands ever since their music hit main stream. Some of their music can be kind of angry and/or risqué; but when they decide to do an inspirational song, they do it very well. This particular song was released in 2007 and was well received but got most of its airtime when Michael Jackson passed away. When we lose someone before, what we perceive as, their time; it never fails to hit home. There have been 4 classmates that I know of that have passed away since we were in high school, and I am only 31 years old. J and I knew a brother and sister that simply left to take a day trip somewhere and ended up being killed due to a fatal car accident. He was only a year older than me and she was younger. These occurrences not only shatter our hearts because they are so quick and tragic, but they also hit home for every single one of us because we are suddenly reminded of our mortality. Think about it! If I speak of my death some day, it’s always pictured to happen when I am a tired old lady that has lived a very long, fulfilling life. How many of you have used this line, “I still have time.”? When my grandmother and grandfather on my father’s side passed away, they were both very old, tired and had been sick for a long time (one with Parkinson’s disease and then the other with Cancer). When their passing came, yes it was extremely sad and they are still missed considerably, but at the same time, it was a relief because they had lived good lives and they had been in so much pain in the end. We don’t all get that option when our lives come to an end. I could walk out my door today to go to work and not make it home. It’s a scary thought but a very real one. With this in mind, I will present one of many questions that you will be reading in this blog; if today was your last day, would you be ready to die? That’s a very difficult and even scarier question to face. But it’s as real as you can get with yourself and other people.

One of the first lines in the lyrics is, “Each day’s a gift and not a given right.” G-d made this world. G-d created each and every one of us with a plan of what will come. He knew exactly when He needed us to be born and He knows exactly when He needs us to die. There is no controlling this and there is no putting it off. You can take your vitamins, go to your doctors, you can be extra careful but it will happen in His due time.

If today was your last day, is there any regret that you would have? Also a very difficult question. Who enjoys owning their short comings and mistakes? Who enjoys being reminds of memories that hurt them. No one, that’s who! I have plenty of things from the past that go through my mind and make me feel bad. Whether they be things that were done to me, or things I did to other people. Something that I have struggled with in the past and still do at times is holding on to these regrets and hurt feelings. I can’t even count how many times I have asked myself “why I do this?” What good does it do any of us to hang on to regrets and hurt? The answer would be none. Letting go can, at times, be easier said than done; but it’s always worth it.

If today was your last day, what have you not fulfilled? I have a (step) grandfather on my mother’s side that is currently dying of cancer and he’s going through what many of us know as a bucket list; all the things that he has always wanted to do in his life and hasn’t gotten around to. Whether we realize it or not, we all have one. It’s all the wants, dreams, and desires that many of us keep stored in the back of our brain. I have quite a few things that would be unfulfilled. I want to start a family. I want to find out G-d’s plan for me. I want to finish college and become a professional photographer. I want to own my own studio and sell beautiful wildlife and landscape pictures. And most of all...I want to finish something I start. (A flaw of mine) What it is that you want to do yet? Be completely honest with yourself in this. And then make a plan to do it. I know I will be.

If today was your last day, could you honestly say, “I LIVED!”? There is no certain way to describe how a person truly lives life because we are all different. J would tell you that you haven’t truly lived till you have spent the night in the African wilderness, looked on the African people and their different ways of life, and stood in the wild simply feeling G-d all around you. For me, it’s standing at the tip top of a mountain and feeling the wind dance around you. It’s walking in a light snow storm listening to the beautiful silence. It’s going to different functions and activities where people are experiencing G-d in different ways and just seeing His light shine through their faces as they praise Him. All of these things, I haven’t done near enough in my lifetime. And that will certainly be changing. So ask yourself...how do you LIVE?

Nothing about life is predictable. If it was, we wouldn’t need G-d, we would see it all coming. Our time here on Earth is very limited but it’s not about the amount of time spent here, it’s about the quality of that time. It’s about how we lived, loved, and, at times, let go. So I leave you with a link to hear the song that inspired this blog and with one last question...If today was your last day, what would you do?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrXIQQ8PeRs&NR=1

G-d Bless!

K