if this was the last day of your life
what would you do?
if this was the last day to taste
a peach or a strawberry?
the last day to smell the fresh
of clean linen or the fragrances
of roses and magnolias?
the last day to see the sky
and feel the rain,
to walk down your favorite lane
or up your favorite hillside?
the last day to listen
to Bach’s “Sleepers Wake”
or Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme”
or Carole King (ode to youth)
or Sam Cooke (ode to justice)
or fill-in-your-best-transcendent-musician-here?
the last day to hold the person
you love most in the world
and say and hear I love you?
what would you do?
I know what you would not do.
you would not spend the day complaining
about the traffic or the cost of anything.
you would not spend it in line
waiting your turn any place
or anywhere in the world.
you would not spend it allowing yourself
to be lectured by or arguing
with narrow-minded, small-hearted
people who do not understand
grace and mercy and forgiveness.
you would not spend it in
a thousand little ways that
in this life make for death
by a thousand tiny, nagging,
life-diminishing, complainy,
whiny cuts.
you would not waste your time
with dysfunctional people
who would rather suck the life out
of their friends and families
than give their lives for others.
as for me, if I were blessed
to know my last day, I would stay
nearest the people who are my home.
I would gather around me
the living and breathe one last time
of love.
I would say thank you Lord
for the journey so far.
I would say gratefulness is
a lot better highway down which
to live this life than bitterness.
I would share big hugs, have
one last drink of loveliness
then fade away smiling.
live today as if it is
the last day of your life
in this world.
live.
grace and peace,
bg