The Gift of a Year

If today you were told that you had only a year to live, what would you do with it?

Better yet, what would you do with the knowledge bestowed in those words?

Many people are given this kind of news on a daily basis. Have you ever wondered how it touches them? How it changes their lives? Have you ever wondered how news like this might change your own life? Would you react with anger? Bitterness? Sadness? Or would it make you take a real good look at your life, get things in order, and start really living each and every day you had left?

Choices. All choices- life changing choices, no matter which way you look at it.

In 1997, Stephen Levine, a former colleague of Ram Doss and Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, wrote a book called “A Year to Live”. He wrote it after over 20 years of working with the dying. Decade’s worth of experiences with those entering and going through the process of leaving this world and those they love behind. From personal experience, that is a blessing and a privilege. It changes life in so many ways.

Through all of his work, he was left with much knowledge. A process of sorts, evolved as a means of his helping people work through this time as they each saw fit. He watched and learned. Very few left everything they had ever known and went about the world for one last binge. Very few.

What most did was to set things right. Look inside and see who they needed forgiveness from, and who they needed to forgive. Clean up any “messes” and make plans so their families wouldn’t have so much to deal with. But then, they started really surprising him. For so many, it became liberating in ways that astonished him. As one such patient wrote:

"As what the doctor said really sank in I could feel something very heavy begin to lift. I felt as though I was free to live my life at last. Bizarrely, life never felt so safe. Maybe I’m crazy, but I felt more freedom and love than I had in some time. In fact, I felt not as though my life was being taken away but as though it had been given back to me. I was going to die and my life was completely my own."

Boundaries begin to fade. The "shoulds" that we place on ourselves, or that others place on us evaporate as we begin to take a deep look at what really matters. It seems that this definite time frame really sets people in motion. Boredom becomes a thing of the past, for there is so much to do, so much more to experience of life! Travel, life, love, friends, forgiveness, healing, mending, and good-byes.

What he did find was that some, on their death beds were overwhelmed by a sense of failure. They had so many regrets. Some had not realized how precious relationships are; some had not found their "true work or calling". Some had left so many things for later, when they would retire, or just to do later… but later came much more quickly than they had planned. They had unfulfilled dreams and felt their lives were incomplete.

Others left relationships that should have ended long before, asked forgiveness of those who they had hurt, and started finding a strong sense of being alive in the present moment. They found a sense of mindfulness, and life had never been better. They pursued dreams that they had put off, and some changed jobs even if it meant they made less. Some looked into spirituality with renewed or newfound interest. They were grateful for this new opening up to life that they found, and wished they had found it much sooner.

Stephen then started to wonder how he would react if given such news.

So, he and his wife embarked on an experiment that would take one year- A Year to Live. He thought at first that it would be a year to get ready for dying- "practice dying" he called it. He found so much more than just that! He knew the process so well from all those he had helped. He knew about planning funerals and comforting, and letting go.

What he didn’t know was how it would open him to really living his life. What he didn’t know was how profound it would be to wake up on the morning of his last day and look into his wife’s eyes for the "last time". What he didn’t know was that along the way he would learn to live with a fullness that he had never dreamed possible before. He learned what it really means to be fully alive and in each moment. He learned what it means to live with heart, and from the heart. He learned what was holding him back from really living his life.

In an interview with Mary NurrieStearns, when asked how the year to live experiment had impacted his life, Stephen said, "The year to live offered extraordinary insights into the places where I had been numb, and into the still small voice within, which became more pronounced. But the most profound influence was an increase in courage. When you have one year left, fear makes you too small. You better live that life that you’re going to be so unhappy to think you are leaving."

And so, I ask you once again… if today you were told you had only a year to live, what would you do with it?

I would like to offer you the gift of a year… a year to experience a process designed to empower you to fully live your life. Each month we will be going over facets of life and steps/processes that will help you really engage in life, help you with forgiveness, and things that hinder your full enjoyment of living. You will examine your dreams, your relationships, and so much more! Each month will have a topic or theme, and we will meet once a month to discuss the theme, and work through it. You will be shown techniques to empower you to practice living that theme for the next month.

The year will go by either way. You can make a choice to positively impact your life with these experiences, or to keep on keeping on. Same old, same old.

Your choice. As always…your choice.

As it should be.

Check out the Classes page for details and how to register.