The Death Threat That Didn't Work

Last week I received a death threat via email. The message informed me that a friend has paid a large sum of money to have me killed. The purpose of the note was to give me a chance to save my life by (you guessed it) paying $5000 for the information about my upcoming murder. This was my first death threat (at least in writing) and has provided a great deal of fun within a circle of my friends as predictions are made about the how and the when. I'm sure the purpose was to scare the bejeebers out of me, but my bejeebers are all intact.

According to my note, I have another seven days to live.

Over the past week I have thought about how I would be if there was a real death threat on my screen of life. What would I do? I suppose, I could never really know, but my sense is that I would not change the way I was living, even if I knew someone or something (like an illness or accident) was going to soon end my living existence in this body.

I would not choose to live in fear, looking over my shoulder at every turn for the assassin, accident or illness that was threatening to take me out. I would live my life in the best way I know. I would want to cultivate joy in all that I do..... to connect with love with all that I see. I would want to be fearless in my quest for life's experiences and to squeeze every drop out of the time I had. I would laugh a lot, eat great food and enjoy my friends and family every moment I had. I'd be grateful for every gift in every day. I would allow myself to feel and express emotions and go from laughter to tears and back to laughter without explanation or apology. I would forgive all those that no longer cared about me. I would hug everyone that would accept it. I'd treat myself to massages, yoga, wonderful books, and lovely wines in pretty stemmed glasses. I'd push my body to be stronger, even when I was tired and weak. I'd constantly create new ideas and then turn them into realities. My mind and spirit would be curious and playful even when my body no longer worked.

The bottom line is, I would not want the threat of death to keep me from living life while I waited for it to end.

Perhaps if we all see death as a fact and not as a threat looming over our shoulder, we'd all be happier living each moment in the time we have. I know I will.