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Common
Sense A Living Obituary Ten years ago, one of my dearest friends and the man who later became my stockbroker, was visited by a tragedy that most of us pray that we will never face. On September 20, 1993 at 11:38 am, Dr. John Slaughter, home from work that day, heard the glass on his first floor break. An avid hunter, fisherman, and sportsman, John grabbed his shotgun to investigate what he hoped was just neighbor hood children being kids. To his shock and dismay, as he reached the first landing, He saw a stranger, a burglar carefully 'lifting' his belongings. As the interloper turned to see John, he lunged at John. As instinct would have it, the shotgun interrupted the burglar's attempt to disarm my friend while simultaneously interrupting the rest of his life as a burglar. The thief lay on the middle of the stairway, a mass of hair, teeth, and disconnected facial tissue. The police arrived and soon discovered that the deceased had been helping him self all over the neighborhood for years. But this story is about my friend John. During the next ten years, his life was turned upside down - the catalyst being, the observation of another man's death at his hands. It's not like the movies where we say, 'served him right'. No, my friend John has lived with the ghost for a decade. Today, he sent me the following email - sort of a report card on the decade since. I've placed it here because it is not part of some ridiculous chain mail, but is instead, a work of deep reverence from a man who has always looked for the win-win in any situation. Please read it and heed it's words. And perhaps, next year, you'll write you own living obituary and I hope that you, like John, will be pleased that you've over come. Thank you John, we all thank you. * * * * Dear Rafriki (Swahili: friend), I am having an exceedingly difficult time with this ten-year anniversary (see Baltimore Sun article), especially in light of recent personal challenges. I am writing to ask you to take a moment in your busy day to slow down and recognize that many of those around us, those individuals that superficially or intimately intersect in our lives, are going through family, financial, and spiritual challenges on an ongoing, almost daily basis. Take a moment and give a stranger a hug and make a new friend. Place a loving call to a relative you haven't spoken to in years. Drop a letter of congratulations to someone with whom you will garner no benefit. Offer to help carry a bag of groceries for someone obviously struggling with the effort. And if you've been angered over something petty someone did years, months or days ago, forgive them. Life is too fleeting. Note: Life is easy; it's the decisions we make that make life difficult. Give yourself a living obituary, and look back and review a past year, a decade or a life. You should be proud of all your words and deeds, and if you aren't, take a moment to make amends. Make it right. Take risks, and even if you fail, at least you tried. Remove negative thoughts from your mind, negative words from your vocabulary and negative people from your life. Find something to make you smile, five times a day. And if you fall, fall on your back because if you can look up, you can get up. Writing these words have lightened my heart and replaced tear filled eyes in a short 60 minutes. The mere attempt to help others helps us. And lastly, learn to love unconditionally. Be peaceful, Johnny
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People
are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is
out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only
if there is a light from within. Keep the faith! |
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