When You’re About to Die
a place in me that always is at peace
In those final moments before you leave this body, what will you say? To whomever is there holding your hand, being with you as you take your last breaths, if you are fortunate enough to be in loving company like that, what will you say?
Oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, best known for his book, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. He has been with many people as they take their final breaths.
As someone who spent 10-20 years with a tumor growing in my brain, my heart holds a special flicker of thanks for this man.
Chances are, he says, you will say some combination of these four things.
I want to tell you that I love you.
I want to tell you that I forgive you.
Will you tell me that you love me?
Would you give me your forgiveness?
These are the golden heavyweights. Love and forgiveness.
They are what Christ consciousness teaches, from the Light within. They are the song of the Light within. And since you and I probably won't die in the next hour or day or week, here's the opportunity.
Do it now.
Do you want a fulfilling life while you’re still breathing?
Don't leave anyone doubting whether you love them.
And don't wait to ask anybody who really matters to you, to tell you they love you or to ask them to forgive you.
You’re not broken or weak by asking.
You are strong.
You are feeding Love.
Forgiveness, that one’s a little trickier since we live in a society molded by the thought that we sin, we are therefore wrong, and “this is bad, but I'll get over it. I can let it go.
Forgiveness is actually the choice to see that humans can do only one of two things — we can express Love or we can call for Love.
An unkind choice or hurtful action, or words spoken unlovingly, are all essentially calls for Love. We can soften our gaze and see from that place, the place that remembers that even though someone behaved poorly, Love is still who they are.
As Ram Dass says in this gorgeous 12-minute video, “There is a place in me that always is at peace.”
We can tune into this place just like an ocean wave that slips up onto a sandy shore, movement and stillness, communing. Quieting ourselves to simply let it in.
Because Love is who you are. Who I am. This is true for everyone.
My dad's the funniest person I know and if he were here right now, I'd ask him for a good joke to close this post with.
Let’s see if I can invoke him…
A mischievous jokester with a loving twist, who doesn't hesitate to express kind words, perhaps on his deathbed he’ll say… “Jessica, don't take any wooden nickels. But if I do, I'll buy you a hotdog.”
Life isn’t short; Life is only now. Keep shining!
Love,
Jessica
Writer + Love Coach + Producer, Making Love to Fear