Can’t take back what i said

2016 first Florida tropical storm
Stormy weather (yesterday’s radar) is happening physically and spiritually.

 

Can’t take back what i said.

How’s it going, i asked while we were washing out hands at the sink in the gym bathroom.

Not so good, he said, my dad has Alzheimers and we just found out he has (kidney?) cancer, and i recently called in hospice.

How old is your dad?

Eighty-seven.

No one lives forever was the first thing that came out of my mouth.

i had invisibly done rapid-fire calculations and deductions in my head and instantaneously thought…87 is a long life. i know many people, my dad and grandfather to name just two, who would have thought 87 was more than a gift.

Sure, death is obviously the end of an earthly relationship. As we age, we have to see (and prepare for) this coming. And how we live with this reality (everyday) in large part determines how we view the separation that death brings.

 

__________

 

On April Fool’s Day 2009, jeff noel began writing five daily, differently-themed blogs (on five different sites). It was to be a 100-day self-imposed “writer’s bootcamp”, in preparation for writing his first book. He hasn’t missed a single day since.

 

This website is about our spiritual health. To leave this site to read today’s post on jeff’s career health website, click here.

 

He has no regrets and no fear as he lives out his final days

Tampa Bay Hyatt
Out for a run in Tampa Bay.

 

Tampa Bay
Running is a great way to see things you’d never see otherwise.

 

While i’m in the middle of an extraordinary milestone (at least that’s what my boss keeps telling me), yesterday i visited with an 89-year old who has asked the staff that he be taken off the 18 pills he takes daily. They’ve relocated him from his Senior Apartment (two doors down from my Mother-In-Law) to the 24-hour Nursing Home (ten rooms down from my Father-In-Law’s room).

Hospice visits him daily, and he told me he has no regrets and no fear.

We fly home in four hours and i will never see him again.

That is, not unless we both believe in Heaven.

He did share that he’s not sure about all the stuff in the Bible – like “streets of gold”, etc.

 

__________

 

 

On April Fool’s Day 2009, jeff noel began writing five daily, differently-themed blogs (on five different sites). It was to be a 100-day self-imposed “writer’s bootcamp”, in preparation for writing his first book. He hasn’t missed a single day since.

This website is about our spiritual health. To leave this site to read today’s post on jeff’s career health website, click here.

 

The One Thing Hardly Anyone Prepares For

Closer inspection shows the tiny office (bottom, center) is part of a much brighter future.

The unexamined life is not worth living. – Socrates

I had no crystal clear idea what I stood for nor what direction I wanted to take my life. Tough questions frightened me. So did the truth. I became medicated and distracted with work and having fun. Years ago I set out to change this – it’s still a work in progress.

Next Blog

Seek The Lowest Place

Humility isn’t about being timid, fearful or in the shadows.

Humility is about discovering your gift, the one only you are uniquely blessed with.

And then living out your life, being the best at what you do, to serve those around you.

Some people spend their lives as a Hospice worker, helping people die well.

Never get bored with the basics, in your spiritual life, or even in your work life.