20 11111 00 W00 W00 W00 W00 Ways tays tays tays tays to Motivo Motivo Motivo Motivo Motivate Yate Yate Yate Yate YourourourourourselfselfselfselfselfAt the end of the exercise, I was an emotional mess.
I had rarely cried that hard in my life. But when those
emotions cleared, a wonderful thing happened. I was
clear. I knew what was really important, and who re-
ally mattered to me. I understood for the first time what
George Patton meant when he said, “Death can be more
exciting than life.”
From that day on I vowed not to leave anything to
chance. I made up my mind never to leave anything un-
said. I wanted to live as if I might die any moment. The
entire experience altered the way I’ve related to people
ever since. And the great point of the exercise wasn’t
lost on me: We don’t have to wait until we’re actually
near death to receive these benefits of being mortal. We
can create the experience anytime we want.
A few years later when my mother lay dying in a
hospital in Tucson, I rushed to her side to hold her hand
and repeat to her all the love and gratitude I felt for
who she had been for me. When she finally died, my
grieving was very intense, but very short. In a matter of
days I felt that everything great about my mother had
entered into me and would live there as a loving spirit
forever.
A year and a half before my father’s death, I began
to send him letters and poems about his contribution to
my life. He lived his last months and died in the grip of
chronic illness, so communicating and getting through
to him in person wasn’t always easy. But I always felt
good that he had those letters and poems to read. Once
he called me after I’d sent him a Father’s Day poem,
and he said, “Hey, I guess I wasn’t such a bad father
after all.”
Poet William Blake warned us about keeping our
thoughts locked up until we die. “When thought is closed