Forty Days of Giving Up: Day Seven - Tomorrow

Thinking about tomorrow, living in today.

I'm giving up tommorrow.  No, not waiting until tommorrow; that would be procrastination.  Already gave that up.  I'm giving up tomorrow in the sense that I am not going to worry about it so much, if at all.  Tomorrow, as Annie would say, is always just a day away.  We will never be there.  Today is where it is at.

So what prompted me to give up tomorrow?  Well, I attended a memorial last nigth for a kind and gentle man who had ultimately learned to live in the today.   He was suffering from an undiagnosed "mystery" disease that caused him great pain and made it difficult to walk and almost impossible to perform some of the activities of daily life.  Yet he carried on.  He persevered.  He lived at last in the now.

He had signs that the end might be near and I am sure had ideas about giving up.  Yet he held his head up and soldiered on.  There was a concert he wanted with all his heart to hear at the Disney Concert Hall in LA.  It was the Tchaikovski Festival and this performance featured the LA Phil with the Simon Bolivar Youth Symphony of Venezuela.  Gustavo Duadamel (pride of LA) was the conductor.  The symphonic gem?  The 1812 Overture.  If anyone could lust for a symphonic piece, this was it for my friend.  

So, knowing it would be at the very least a mighty physical challenge, I drove him and his wife into LA.   

It was a wonderful evening of friendship and music.  The music touched our souls.  I personally have never heard such amazing music.  My friend and his wife were in heaven, holding hands, smiling and transported to great heights by the music.   Ectasy in music.

Then it ended.  Shortly after, in the lobby of the hall, my friend collapsed and died.  Just that quick.  At the time it seemed like a dream...maybe even a nightmare.  But it was despite the tragic end of my friend's life, perfection.  He had achieved something many people would never attempt.  He had transcended the limitations of his fragile body to do something he longed so to do.  And in the end, he even transcended his body and left us on what only could be a super-high.

That is why I am giving up tomorrow.  Do it now, today, right away.  Never let perceived limitations keep you from doing what your heart craves.   Today is all we have.  Lesson learned: live now.  Let tomorrow take care of itself.

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