A Paradox

There is something so pure about being given months, even weeks, to live.

Not in the sense that you are happy or filled with joy that you have been dealt this set of cards in life. No, not at all. But in the sense that you are stripped back to your purest self. Beneath the fear and soul crushing reality that death is near. You soon come to understand what is truly important in life. No longer possessed or affected by the material gifts of the physical world. No longer wounded by small minded opinions from small minded people. You begin to realise that most things you once thought were so terrible or important meant nothing in the grand scheme of things. You begin to see just how minute all of these problems truly were. And it is a painful truth that it so often takes the near arrival of death, or the diagnosis of a terminal illness, for people to arrive at this realisation.

This is what I believe to be one of life's great paradoxes.

Once you understand this concept and truly grasp what it means, you learn to live in the present moment. Not just exist within it, but truly live inside of it. You give all that you have to each moment you are alive. You come to see that most problems are constructs made up in our beautifully complex minds, shadows we mistook for walls.

Give to the world. Give to your community. Give to your family. Lead with empathy and love. Then surrender to God's will.