Visiting Mom
My mom is Helen, an inspirational lady in my life and she is 94 and loosing it slowly but surely. The love is still there but the daily mileposts and reminders and memories are now foggy. She still dances to the Beatles music when I take her for ice-cream but then it’s gone.
I visited her this last weekend as I do every week and I noticed something that reached in and seized my soul like an icy hand.
There were these little boxes outside the door of each of their rooms, boxes that they could put things into, mementos and pictures to symbolize them and their lives.
“This is what my life was all about, this is me. “
Wow, what as sobering thought. If we had to, right now today, put our lives in a little glass box outside our door, what would it say about us?
Would you be proud of your own life? Would you have done all you wanted, or would you still be waiting with the big dreams unfulfilled?
Look before the thought overwhelms you, I will tell you I had a really hard time with that thought. I have had some great success, some huge incomes, I have kids that love me, but wow my life in a box, that was disturbing.
Those boxes were filled with old pictures of wonderful people in their prime, in the passion of life, living in the moment and looking forward to a future of joy.
I looked at my own life and knew there was so much still left undone, so much still unwritten in my story. Sometimes life presents us with these moments of clarity, of clear view, and challenges us to either hide, or embrace the idea of change and move forward.
I choose forward, you know its never too late.
May that box at your door be overflowing with a life well lived and with no stone unturned (your bucket list fulfilled). Like the ancient Romans used to say…..
Carpe Diem (seize the day)
16 Responses Leave a comment
WOW Marc, like you said, what a sobering thought. My bucket list is not complete, the items in my “box”, a reminder of a wonderful life so far but a lot of things undone. My thoughts used to be “Time Don’t Run Out On Me”, now it’s living each day to the fullest, sharing good times with family and friends and growing personally as much as I can. Thanks for sharing this with us and forcing us to think a lot deeper than, will it’s another Monday.
Thanks,
Norm
Mr. Marc Barrett
I have talked to you a few times on the phone.
I have had the vision from when I was younger.I have made quite a few mistakes that have put me to the position that i am in now.The plan on how to get to this vision has been a dream I have lived with for the last 25 years.This vision turned dream is now transformed back into a vision that i can still accomplish in the very near future.I am trying to get the money together shortly so I can have your vision and dream be my same vision and dream.I am at a place that when I have the little finances i need I can make your dreams and my vision come true.I am being patient for I already see my vision becoming reality once I join you in your business my vision and yours will help 10000,snds of people and will have completed my bucket list and the box eveyone has will be of you and me.You will help me get there nwith your dream and my vision.I will soon have the money to make this come true.
Thank you
Estill Music
Marc,
As my British friend would say, “Well done!” Your blog hit home and said it all. I personally have just discovered my calling at age 55 and am on fire to make my dreams come true.
Anything can be accomplished with passion, determination, and a ‘Never quit” attitude.
Here’s to your bucket list!
Our lives are indeed in a glass box and one day we will be held accountable for all we did or didn’t do. I enjoyed the sobering article Marc, and it caused me to do a little more soul searching…thanks!
Great article, hey I stumbled on to this story while googling for mp3s. Thanks for sharing I’ll email my friends about this too.
Thanks Marc,that was very touching and thought provoking. There is still so much to do, both needed and wanted… I hope I can find the courage to do it.
Hi Marc,
Those are some very sobering views. I have always wondered what people will write on my tombstone, or if I will leave someting really great behind like Da vinci or Handel, or all those famous names. I am a nurse, and I take care of people at all stages in life. I have always said to my friends, “when I become old and feeble and I don’t have a life where I need to be going somewhere or doing something, I hope that all of my life’s adventures would keep me happy and fulfilled when I have nothing but the past to remember.”
Tessa
So you have figured me out! Heart felt! Person for many that I meet, to fulfill my destiny that God has gifted me to GIVE back to others, happiness! I’m Blessed to be a blessing!! And in each moment I help, care or share with another, my Baskets/Buckets are FULL!
Moving Forward is my goal today! I’ve been making a plan and using some of your methods will be part of it! Thanks
Thanks for sharing!I’m way behind on my “to do” list. That is why I’ve joined MLSP; to help me achieve all I want to do!
Marc, thank you for your insight. Truly the glass is “half full”. We all are mortal and it sure is a fact that we can never out give God and with the help of good folk such as yourself we can all help others who are in need. Blessings come in many ways and be assured your wisdom is most valued. Thak you
So you have figured me out! Heart felt! Person for many that I meet, to fulfill my destiny that God has gifted me to GIVE back to others, happiness! I’m Blessed to be a blessing!! And in each moment I help, care or share with another, my Baskets/Buckets are FULL!
Moving Forward is my goal today! I’ve been making a plan and using some of your methods will be part of it! Thanks
Marc,
As my British friend would say, “Well done!” Your blog hit home and said it all. I personally have just discovered my calling at age 55 and am on fire to make my dreams come true.
Anything can be accomplished with passion, determination, and a ‘Never quit” attitude.
Here’s to your bucket list!
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by vibrantaging: Visiting Mom http://bit.ly/cbJIsb...
Hi Marc,
Those are some very sobering views. I have always wondered what people will write on my tombstone, or if I will leave someting really great behind like Da vinci or Handel, or all those famous names. I am a nurse, and I take care of people at all stages in life. I have always said to my friends, “when I become old and feeble and I don’t have a life where I need to be going somewhere or doing something, I hope that all of my life’s adventures would keep me happy and fulfilled when I have nothing but the past to remember.”
Tessa
Our lives are indeed in a glass box and one day we will be held accountable for all we did or didn’t do. I enjoyed the sobering article Marc, and it caused me to do a little more soul searching…thanks!
Thanks Mark,
I remembered when I needed to get some information on my father’s lifelong employment company, after he passed away, a disinterested employee handed me a small box.
He said: “here is everything we have on your father…”
Everything, 34 years of service, in that small box? There were only some papers and the information about his sudden death in his place of work.
It was sobering….was all that box the only trace of his 34 years of services? I had my memories of his work as my father, and could put together the whole image in my mind.
Now, I know that if there something left from my own service to the world, it has to be etched in the memories of the people who knows me, day after day….
Thanks for a lovely post!