Don't Hear that too Often....

The other day I was out working in a neighborhood I frequent on just about a daily basis. I was in someone's front yard locating when I saw an elderly lady approach me.

At first we struck up some small talk. She wanted to know when her yard was going to be dug on, how long was the work going to be going on in the 'hood, will her yard be made pretty again after it's been dug up, etc.

I told her that they would probably be working on it either the following day or day after. She informed me that she didn't know if she'd be around then. She told me she was 86 years old (give or take a couple of years) and that she would be dying soon. I didn't pry into that, but she did mention she had a doctor's appointment that day. Then she looked at me and said, "but ya know, I'm ready to die."

"Oh, so you're ready for that?" (never really had to respond to that statement before)

"Oh yes. I'm ready to die. I've lived a good life, and I've got a beautiful house. I think I'm ready to go."

She also told me she had lost her husband some time back. A widow. She retired in 1980. Said that she had lived a full life........

How often do you hear someone say to you those words, "I'm ready to die"? It didn't dawn on me until I had heard it that I quite possibly have never had someone utter those words to me in a conversation. We all (anytime I use 'we', this is including myself) spend so much time making sure we make it to the next day, next hour, next minute on a daily basis. Safety is a big part of society, and some practice it more than others, in the hopes that we make a conscious effort to continue to live. We save money, or try to, so that we either have money to buy things for ourselves to upgrade our status or comfort, or to put back for the kiddos, with the notion that we 'know that tomorrow WILL be here so how do I make it better?' We plan, we plan, we plan. But do we plan to die?

This surely sounds like a ramble, and that's kinda what that statement did to my brain. Threw me off a tad. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with planning and wanting to better yourself, because the opposite of that would be a sluggard that waits for things to be handed to him/her. I pray that the majority of us do not fall victim to the latter, but I am saying this........what treasures are we planning to attain? Are our plans for a better life filled with 'meisms'?

I say all of this because the realization of this life ending stared me in the face that day, and also the realization that I don't think about death much, if at all. The one thing I wish I would have asked here was what she did in her life for her to be at a point where she was okay with the thought of dying. I'd be willing to bet that if she's fortunate enough to know when that time is, that she won't be sitting in her living room thinking, "man, I'm glad I bought that flatscreen HDTV," or in the garage going, "if I wouldn't have had that BMW, I don't think I would have fulfilled what I wanted in this life," or.......well, you get the point. She surely won't be taking that with her when she goes.

What a statement, huh? "I'm ready to die." Right now, I'm too busy thinking about my "immortality". Puts things into perspective when you hear something like that. My hope and prayer is that when it gets to that point in my life, I can look back and say, "yeah. I feel good about this. Let's go home."

Peace,
t