The Hopewell House

D & I watched an independent movie tonight that we found on Netflix called One Week. It was the basic idea of a guy finding out he has cancer and has only one week to live. When the man discovers the news, he starts to question everything in his life and realizes he's lived this consistently mundane lifestyle. He would reach out for things but never pursued them if they showed no immediate results. Out of fear and routine, he realized he had wasted his life away and out of comfort he had stayed in a relationship he was not passionate about. Long story short he decided to live out the things he had never done. H just up and leaves to live out all the things he had always been afraid to pursue and through this he eventually finds himself and finds peace within himself.

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Wow.

The movie as a whole just gives you so much to think about. I mean it's so easy to live routinely and getting into these rituals, but what if you lived out that life to only look back on it as feeling like you never really lived.

It actually reminds me of a student encounter I had a few weeks back. I shared it on Facebook, but haven't shared it with you all yet:

"I had an individual come in today to talk about taking classes. She is close to 70 and even admitted herself that the idea of pursuing a degree was crazy, but as she talked, she told me that throughout her life she had done some things that she felt proud of but at 70, she is realizing that there was more she could have done. She said that she realized now that she could have given more and there were so many things she wished she had accomplished and just didn't. 

But the basic fact is, she still has that week left to live. Her life isn't done just yet.

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I pondered the end of the movie and then looked at D.

I told him I knew exactly what I would do. 

If I only had one precious week to live, I would live it with D. and we would do all the crazy usual things we love to do.

When I think of what makes my life worthwhile (outside of my relationship with God) it is those precious moments when I look at D and I am so filled with such an uncontrollable love, knowing I married the one person who can make me feel so whole.

I love our relationship because it's not controlled by these "I wishes" but instead we just do. We just live life together. Without regrets. Without hesitation. I know I can look back on my life and know I lived it and I lived it well. 

Don't wait for those "I'll do it sometime in the future" moments,

Live out each day!

We all have so much to give and to offer,

This world has so much to hold.

Don't you want to breath and experience life and the beauty that surrounds it?

Take time to walk amongst the trees and the wildlife, enjoy the sun as it sets at night, live in those moments with your spouse remember all those special times that you both have shared, reflect on your passions and dive into them, laugh until you cry, and sometimes just simply learn to breathe.

So I guess my question is to you tonight is what would you do if you only had one week left to live? Really though, what would you do?

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"