What Would You Do?

None of us like to think about it but the truth is this: The moment we are born, we begin to die.

Mostly we live our lives without giving ‘it’ much thought. But if we’re faced with the possibility of death, what would we do?

What is important to us? What do we want to do before we leave our body behind and embark on the mysterious journey of whatever comes next? What would be our legacy left behind?

And who would we contact? Who would we reach out to say….I love you?

Such important questions. But facing them isn’t something any of us want to do…not for real anyway.

So what if we chose to face them, without the big “D” facing us but answered as if it was sitting on our shoulder, black hood and sickle at the ready.

My answers, you wonder?

Who is my person? The person knows because I reached out and made contact. It’s not important who it is, but simply that I made contact and shared my feelings.

What I would do? Dive more…spend more time underwater in the place I feel most at home communing with the sea and creatures of the vast ocean.

What else? I would let go of fear and move forward with the strength of a knight to share beauty with the world. I would let go of the grief that has wrapped me like a gray blanket and simply embrace beauty and live within it and express it at every opportunity.

I discovered this week that my greatest fear isn’t death…it is losing beauty. The beauty of our beautiful water planet, of trees, beaches, dolphins, whales, manatees….of clear water, clean air. While the loss and beauty of a lover’s embrace, support and encouragement can be devastating, losing the beauty of nature is ultimately my greatest fear.

Choosing to ask ourselves these questions can free us to live fully and completely and to embrace that which is important to us regardless of the outcome.

Rumi wrote, “Our task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

And Leo Buscaglia said, “Love is always bestowed as a gift freely, willingly and without expectation. We don’t love to be loved. We love to love.”

No matter the destruction wildlife and wild places experience, I choose to love freely–refusing to hold back because I am afraid of them disappearing. No matter that human relationships may not last, I can choose to love because my heart feels love and expect absolutely nothing in return.

It isn’t complicated. It’s quite simple in fact.

I choose love. What will you choose?