I’ve many times heard that if someone was told that they only had months or a year to live, ‘what would they do with their time left on earth?’, and the answers are often, ‘Go to Paris’ or ‘Europe’ or ‘skydive’ and so forth. It has seemed to me that the focus is generally to do all the things or fulfill key dreams that haven’t been accomplished yet in life: have fun quick, before I die.

But, every time I ponder, ‘what would I do with my last year of life’, I can’t help but think things like, ‘make sure my kids and grandkids know how much I love them’ and ‘tell my kids and grandkids everything important that I might not have shared with them yet’ and ‘make sure to do for and give everything to everyone I love that I can, while I can’. I somehow feel like I’ll see Paris or Europe from ‘up there’ anyway and that there will be plenty of time for ‘flying’ and ‘holidays’ once I’m gone from this terrestrial sphere. I suppose I tend towards feeling an urgency to do all the important things for others whom I love so very much, quick, before I’m not here to do good for them any longer.

I saw something of ‘The (kick the) Bucket List’ and though there were nice ideas and even at least one or two of helping or connecting with others, most of the list was about seeing sights (albeit some very nice sights that I would like to someday see myself). The commercial for the movie that I had seen did also appear to have things on the list like ‘telling some people off’, and perhaps some other things akin. I suppose my general thought about a ‘to do before you die’ list is this: why would you want to waste precious time on anything negative, and why would you bother with somewhat ‘selfish dreams’ rather than spending that limited time giving to those whom you love while you still had some time to do so?

All this was meant to lead to the idea that I’ve been thinking I would try to ‘live this year as if it could be my last’. And so, why would painting and writing be on my ‘last year’ list? Because, these are a few of my gifts to those whom I love (and to those who care), however meager and humble my talents and efforts to make an artistic offering.