If You Knew Your Exact Last Day Alive
What would you do differently?
We always through this question around.
What if tomorrow was your last day alive?”
We think about it for a moment and then we shake it off because 1) most of us are uncomfortable with our mortality and 2) we really don’t believe tomorrow could be our last day.
And so, we will answer jokingly, sometimes highlighting our deep truths in those jokes and then brushing them as quickly as we said them, because tomorrow cannot be my last day alive.
Somewhere deep within, you probably think life owes you years and years of being alive.
You have goals to reach. You e got things to do. There’s no way you’re dying anytime soon.
Only it’s very possible.
Only it happens daily.
To people who also thought like you.
Can never be me.
A Short Story
Paula was a brilliant girl who loved and owned the colour purple like it was hers that I used to mentor.
I met her when she was 16 and we had this mentor-mentee relationship until she turned 18.
Seeing her tap into her essence and bloom into the young lady God created her to be was so beautiful to watch. There were talks of a purple house and a purple wedding.
She had a boyfriend, which I was happy about. She got to know what being loved felt like. He loved her well.
She was serving in church and that smile, I bet it preached more sermons than the real sermons themselves.
She had just stayed up long enough to celebrate her one year anniversary with her boyfriend. It was a little past midnight. It was bedtime.
She and her cousin are heading to their room. She feels a little dizzy. She passes out and starts convulsing. Ambulance called. She doesn’t make it to the hospital alive.
The autopsy revealed she had undiagnosed pneumonia.
And just like that, she was gone.
And with her all her dreams and wishes and her love for the colour purple.
Today really could be your last day.
Right now could be your last moment.
At least Paula’s was a happy one. She had just said happy anniversary to her love.
What about you?
What if death came and took you right now, what state would it find you in?
You see, I’m realising that knowing we have a finite time on earth should encourage us to live the most beautiful and abundant lives we possibly can.
We should live every day to the fullest; not merely existing.
And I know there are things outside our control like the economy and whatnot, but, I think if we are careful enough, we would be able to find ways around the things we can’t control that would still allow us to live our fullest lives.
Something for you to think about.
As for me, I know I don’t want to spend my life trying to prove any point to anyone. Or trying to prove my worth.
I want to help people live their most beautiful authentic lives. I want to curate awesome events where people feel seen and heard and also, have a grand time. I want to spend time with people who make me laugh so hard I cry or pee myself a little.
I want to read and write and love — genuinely and be loved genuinely right back.
If death were to find me doing or not doing any of the things above, I’d be OK with it.
And since Paula was the first closest person to me to ever die, I now know how real the, “this can be your last moment” is.
If something wouldn’t matter to me on my last day alive, I’m not going to make it matter today.
That’s the task.
To really be clear on the things that you’d fill your day with on your last day and then, start filling your todays with them. I think it will make for a beautiful, fulfilling life story. You e just got to be courageous enough to be honest with yourself.
Let me know how it goes.
XO,
Moulding Beauty
