From Here To There and Somewhere

Death is a consequence of birth. It's true, you know. We are born in order to die. Nobody thinks that when you are brand new, and I don't think it should be brought up, when life is shining before you. But it is something to keep in mind as you go throughout life. Not in a paranoid kind of way, but in a way that will urge you to think "what am I doing today?" How many days do I have in my life? Nobody here could tell you. We can all make guesses, and I think that most people do, ranging somewhere between 80 and 95. But for some of us, life is much shorter, and when that time comes and its time to look back on our life, what will we say? What will we think? Will we look back and say "I wish I had done this" or "I wish I hadn't have done that". Will we think of all the missed opportunities that crept by us, or that we foolishly threw away for some other seemingly important task? None of us want that. We want our lives to be rich and full of value, meaning, memories, and purpose. We want to be able to reminisce in the nostalgic days of yore. We will want to be sentimental from time to time, and look back with a smile as we view in our minds what we no longer see with our eyes; the past.

And thats just how it goes. An moment comes and then its gone before we really even fully know what happened. Its gone. Was it a good one? Well thats up to you, right now. The past is constantly being made, and once there, it can't really be changed. What happened to you will always be what happened to you. There are no time machines, no regret fixers. Just more time ahead of us to make better of what we did. So how do we fix it, or how do we work it out, so that every past moment is one that can be cherished and treasured? My answer came from President Thomas Monson in a talk he gave in April of 2008. He explains:

Sometimes we let our thoughts of tomorrow take up too much of today. Daydreaming of the past and longing for the future may provide comfort but will not take the place of living in the present. This is the day of our opportunity, and we must grasp it.

Professor Harold Hill, in Meredith Willson’s The Music Man, cautioned, “You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you’ve collected a lot of empty yesterdays.”

There is no tomorrow to remember if we don’t do something today, and to live most fully today, we must do that which is of greatest importance. Let us not procrastinate those things which matter most.

I remember reading the account of a man who, just after the passing of his wife, opened her dresser drawer and found there an item of clothing she had purchased when they visited the eastern part of the United States nine years earlier. She had not worn it but was saving it for a special occasion. Now, of course, that occasion would never come.

In relating the experience to a friend, the husband of the deceased wife said, “Don’t save something only for a special occasion. Every day in your life is a special occasion.”

That friend later said those words changed her life. They helped her cease putting off the things most important to her. Said she: “Now I spend more time with my family. I use crystal glasses every day. I’ll wear new clothes to go to the supermarket if I feel like it. The words ‘someday’ and ‘one day’ are fading from my vocabulary. Now I take the time to call my relatives and closest friends. I’ve called old friends to make peace over past quarrels. I tell my family members how much I love them. I try not to delay or postpone anything that could bring laughter and joy into our lives. And each morning, I say to myself that this could be a special day. Each day, each hour, each minute is special.” - President Thomas S. Monson

And thats how we do it. We make time for the things that matter most. Sometimes we really just want to take a nap, but are we missing the beauty of the day that is around us? Are we missing time that could be spent with family and loved ones? And so, as we remember that we came here to get back there, let us make the most of our days, that they will be full, but not with regrets.