I will not Die an Unlived Life

In the past month I have laid to rest two people whom it would seem to me had not been given the opportunity to live out all their days. Both died at a relatively young age – from my stand point – one my own age and one a few years older than me.

Thinking about their sudden and untimely deaths brought to mind the Dawna Markova poem         I will not die an unlived life.

 

Both of these men had lived out their gifts and talents with such commitment. In more recent years when David started to have a bit more time for himself, he took up mountain climbing and developed a new perspective on life and death from the tops of the highest mountain ranges.

When the economic downturn hit Victor’s business badly, he turned his hand to creating the traditional Irish music instrument – the Uilleann pipes. With no experience and only a large cache of curiosity, patience and love he began creating amazing instruments and became a renowned pipe maker.

 

Neither of these men could be said to have lived an unlived life. They found the hidden corners where the light had not previously shone and illuminated them with their gifts and talents. They inhabited their days, allowing life to open them and encouraged the tiny seeds of potential to blossom and bear fruit.

If you bring forth what is within you,

what you bring forth shall save you.

If you do not bring forth what is within you,

what you do not bring forth will destroy you.

– Jesus, Gospel of St. Thomas

 

The daily challenge for each of us is to inhabit our days, in this moment and this moment and this moment too. To be present in our life; to quiet the interference that prevents us reaching our potential.

 

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

– Mary Oliver

 

 

I will not die an unlived life.

I will not die an unlived life.

I will not live in fear

of falling or catching fire.

I choose to inhabit my days,

to allow my living to open me,

to make me less afraid,

more accessible,

to loosen my heart

until it becomes a wing,

a torch, a promise.

I choose to risk my significance;

to live so that which came to me as seed

goes to the next as blossom

and that which came to me as blossom,

goes on as fruit.

                                Dawna Markova