Today I was given the opportunity to share my accomplishments, hopes, dreams, and latest endeavors with a co-worker. Much to her surprise she had no idea of all the things that I had done and still pray faithfully to do, in what she would call a short time. I shared with her that I felt like I am at the half way point in my life and if I didn’t do those things in which I dream of now, then when. I went on to tell her that my mother was diagnosed with pre-senile dementia when she was 53 years old that later developed into Alzheimer’s. Simply put, that is 10 years from now and if by some chance I should receive the same fate as my mother, I want to have had a life basically worth dying for. Although my mother would live for twenty plus years with Alzheimer’s I do know that in her short time here with us that she did whatever she wanted to do. She lived a full 53 years. Her diagnosis would give me the fuel to seek out those things in life that I had been dreaming of since I could remember and on the eve of what would be her 77th birthday I get quiet to recognize my own life; where I’ve been and where I am going. Often I have thought that I too would live a short life as she did which in turn made me realize not only how precious life is but how we have to seek out our purpose in life and go for it, guns blazing. Although it would seem sad that someone had to die so that I could live, I am reminded that it was not the first time.
I wouldn’t say that I’m living so that I could die; but when I’m gone I want to have accomplish more than I could have ever dreamed of. As for today I sit quiet and think of what I want to accomplish in the next ten years and my soul smiles.
Kai Mann 