From Here to Eternity:

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Bruce G Epperly. From Here to Eternity:

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FROM HERE TO ETERNITY:

PREPARING FOR THE NEXT ADVENTURE

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Still, everything hinges on the “now what?” that perplexed William Saroyan. Once we recognize that life — and let’s get personal, “my life” and “your life” — is finite, we need to ask ourselves “What are we going to do with this unique and precious life that has been given us?” Once we truly realize that we don’t have forever, at least, in this lifetime, will we live in fear or savor each moment, including the most painful and challenging ones? Will we greet each fleeting day with worry or with the affirmation, “this is the day that God has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it?” (Psalm 118:24).

The Psalmist asks God to make our mortality meaningful. “Teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart” (Psalm 90:12). As a friend asserted, after he was diagnosed with incurable cancer, “I don’t have time to mess around. I’m not going to let anything get in the way of living. I’m going to greet each sunrise with joy and each sunset with gratitude.” “Each day matters,” noted a 95-year-old widower I encountered at a Hyannis, Massachusetts, coffee house. “When I was younger, I thought I had forever. I thought my wife would live forever and that she’d be with me at the bedside. But, she didn’t make it. I was with her when she went. I want to make to one hundred but that’s just a few more years. I have no illusions. I’m going to die and pretty soon. Even if I stay healthy, I only have a handful of Christmases left and what if dementia sets in. I know how brief my stay will be. Now, each day is a cause for celebration.”

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