Sometimes a song arrives at the perfect moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first time I heard \u201cDie With a Smile\u201d by Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars, I wasn\u2019t struck by thoughts of death. I found myself thinking about life\u2026 rather, how we spend it, who we spend it with, and whether we are truly awake to the extraordinary gift of simply being here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That reaction perhaps isn\u2019t surprising. As many of you know, death and I have been acquainted for a very long time. It took my father when I was eleven. Since then, it has remained a quiet companion through years of hospice volunteering, through friends and neighbors facing diagnoses no one ever imagines receiving, and through countless moments of witnessing unimaginable heartbreak and remarkable grace. Along the way, it has taught me one of life\u2019s greatest lessons: the greatest tragedy isn\u2019t that we die; it\u2019s that so many of us postpone living until we\u2019re reminded that we will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Along the journey, I realized the opposite of death isn\u2019t life at all. It is disconnection. It is believing there will always be another conversation, another anniversary, another chance to mend what has been broken, another ordinary Tuesday to say the words we keep telling ourselves can wait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That realization has quietly reshaped how I move through the world, both literally and figuratively. It has made me want to show up more fully\u2014for my husband, my family, my friends, and even complete strangers whose paths briefly cross mine. Not because I have mastered life, but because I have learned how fragile and beautifully temporary it truly is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grief, as painful as it has been, has also been one of my greatest teachers. It has taught me to stop postponing joy<\/em>\u2026to linger a little longer at the dinner table, to embrace people as though I truly mean it, to board the plane, to ask the deeper question, to protect my peace without apology, and, above all, to pay attention. The ordinary moments we so often rush through eventually become the ones we miss most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One day, my story will end, as every story does. When that day arrives, I hope the smile on my face won\u2019t come from a life that was easy or untouched by sorrow. I hope it comes from knowing I loved generously, stayed curious, forgave often, chose connection over convenience, and remembered\u2026again and again\u2026to truly live before I died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Go listen to this beautiful song; I hope it leaves you reflecting as it did me, and let it become more than a melody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I task you to call the person you\u2019ve been meaning to call, take the trip you\u2019ve been postponing, have the difficult conversation, and tell people what they\u2019ve meant to your life while they\u2019re still here to hear it. I have chosen wonder over worry, presence over distraction, and love over fear. Life has a way of convincing many of us that we have more time than we do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today is the perfect day to stop waiting. Go live your life, do so deeply and deliberately, while you still can. I know I am.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sometimes a song arrives at the perfect moment. The first time I heard \u201cDie With a Smile\u201d by Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars, I wasn\u2019t struck by thoughts of death. I found myself thinking about life\u2026 rather, how we spend it, who we spend it with, and whether we are truly awake to the extraordinary gift of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,69,29,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-death","category-journal-entry","category-personal-contemplation","category-reflection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1517,"href":"https:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515\/revisions\/1517"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}