If Today Was Your Last Day...

“Against the grain should be a way of life,

What`s worth the prize is always worth the fight,

Every second counts cause there`s no second try,

So live it like you`re never living twice…” Nickelback

 Still on a musical note, this other day I felt like some light rock and off to Explorer it was to chase down some Nickelback. Was very particular, this Canadian rock band is a firm favorite with their unique blend of melodic pop rock.

Pretty motivating too, can`t recall how many times their What Are You Waiting For has provided enough encouragement for me to raise my lazy rump and do something productive. On this particular day the Nickelback craving was settled by their All The Right Reasons album of 2005, and the track If Today Was Your Last Day provided some food for thought. Nothing deeply philosophical, merely going along and me too asking: Ehh mfo, if today was to be your last day, what would you do?

 A fairly loaded question in that, generally, the modern lifestyle is such that we have a number of commitments that need our attention. With family responsibilities on the one side, work obligations on the other, and the odd cat, dog, friend, cactus plant…etc., in-between, how do we then split our activities on that one last day? And, beyond the demands of family, porcupiny plants, and unreliable canines, what about myself? How will I do good to ME in those last few hours?

The time issue always features, more urgently at entirely unexpected moments. We go about our days certain that there will be tomorrow, rarely looking back on the significance of what it is we did yesterday or the potential impact of what we are doing today. And so we carry on, not always sure if yesterday will remain a dream of happiness, but still wishing for the vision of hope that is tomorrow. Altogether, we often wish that we could rewind time to go back and fix something here, and do another differently over there. But, seeing that this will always remain a wish, do we then commit to doing things slightly differently going forward?

 We are social beings entitled to many things, including how we choose to spend the minutes allocated to us. Yet, amongst others, for all the time-spendability we get to enjoy, for the most part, this is rarely entirely up to us.  As far as we can, we always endeavor to do a bit more, to cast a slightly longer shadow and stretch ourselves just that little further. Whether we actually end up doing so is an open question, if we don’t today…perhaps we`ll give it another go tomorrow!

With these thoughts that there should be a bit more to our days than fun and economics, I realized how I like to spend my last day if push finally decides to become shove: I Will Make A Difference. Not quite condemned to indefinitely hold up the skies like old Atlas, but close enough anyway.

 Overall, I will inject a bit more fun into my one-man household and will call up a few more of my relationals to tell them how much I appreciate them. I will go around to some friends to crack some silly jokes and talk heaps of absolute nonsense. On that last day, I will make less like uJambase with an unreachable itch and more like the effervescent Marty in Madagascar.

 If today is to be my last day, I will play a bit more and spend more time appreciating the beauty of random flowers. I`ll make sure to enjoy the whisper of the summer rain on my not-nearly-dark enough epidermis, and inhale more deeply the fragrance of those first few drops. I`ll travel more and talk less, explore wider, and spend less time in my all too well-known surrounds. I`ll find new stomping grounds to explore and a few differentiated adventures to interrogate. I`ll find more wild horses to clamber on and a couple of evil-tempered bovines to stare down.

 If today is indeed my last day, I`ll search out more spaces of absolute silence where I can look far, far way into the distance. I will actively hunt down those endless vistas that mirror eternity, places where I can think less and listen more closely to what my heart is telling me. I`ll dial back on unnecessary fretting, do more and completely untie myself from any chains that might still curtail my freedom. I`ll enjoy the nourishing rays of sunlight so much more than before, and kindly ask the ever-so-enigmatic moon to share some of its secrets with me.

As the sand trickles through, grain by unstoppable grain, I reckon I`d be friendlier to more people, I`ll give much more of myself than I had yesterday. I`ll smile more and laugh even harder – especially at myself, and will hightail it out of any spaces that has the merest prospect of a frown, or threat of a dark cloud. I`ll make sure to appreciate Life a whole lot more, and stop wasting time on that which, in hindsight, was never really that important.

 If Today Was To Be My Last Day, I`d Be More ME, In More Ways… If today were to be YOUR last day, how would you spend it?

 PS.: As I`m just about to press send after having made sure the Ts and Is are sorted, out of the blue comes Dave Specter`s That`s How Strong My Love Is. Bit of a fitting and totally appropriate close to the message at hand. Guess, if today is meant to be my last day, I`d be sure to love a little more too. A little more consistently, and much more sincerely. I`d be more receptive in the showing of such love, and less doubtful when the same love is extended to me...