Still Here

~Written by Coach Jeanne Gladden

“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls a butterfly.” Richard Bach Well, it ain’t over yet. I get the feeling some are disappointed. Living like there is no tomorrow may have just caught up with them. I admit to enjoying a few extra deserts, just in case; and indulging in a few random purchases. I allowed my work-out schedule to slide to the bottom of the list, figuring what the heck. Apparently, there will be consequences for my choices. I don’t get out of it that easy. And, if you’re reading this column, neither do you. We’re still here, and it looks like we have some work to do. On the other hand, there’s something to be said for living full out each day. In his book, A year to Live: How to Live this Year as if it were Your Last, Steven Levine points out that most of us go to extraordinary lengths to ignore or laugh off the fact that we are going to die. Diverse though we may be, this is one thing we surely have in common. Levine guides readers to live each moment, each day mindfully as if it were our last. How different we might behave if we were to keep the end in mind. I am personally very pleased that our planet is all set for yet another trip around the sun, and the dawn of a new decade. But I do wonder just how we can pull together to make things a little bit better for everyone who still lives here.

“The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hand the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life.” John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961.