Wow - slapped!

This article hit home for me.

The article is about a palliative nurse who explained that when dealing with patients 

who are terminally ill, 

there are five common themes or regrets that people express.

Five things they wish they had done MORE or LESS of.

Five things that they would like to change or perhaps completely RE-DO!

So I had to take a peak at the questions of course. Little did I know it 

would prompt me to write a freaking blog post.

(talk about self-reflection)

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

2. I wish I didn't work so hard.

3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

There TWO things on that list that I can confidently say, I'm doing.

(perhaps not well, but doing to the best of my ability)

The other THREE....

FAIL!

Complete failure.

How often do you think of death?

Right, never!

Death isn't really something that I like to think about either;

 however,

my parents are getting any younger and even friends around me are getting sick 

or having different health issues and complication.

Losing those you love - well...it ain't easy.

So I'm told.

And so far, I have been perfectly happy about being naive to the issue.

Denial is a beautiful thing sometimes.

But 

this article was a slap in the face.

Thinking about someone I love, being sick, on their death bed with regrets....

...is AWFUL.

ESPECIALLY if I could have done something to help.

Pffft, what can you do to help Lauren?

Well, see that list above? 

Why not try and help those people that you know, who are sick 

or getting older with less and less time....

Why not help THEM eliminate (or at least try to eliminate)

 as many

of those regrets as possible? 

IT'S NEVER TO LATE; trying is better than not trying, at all.

Right?

You might think I am being naive again, even nuts perhaps.

But

Thinking this way gives me a little more hope.

Just a little.

I know - I know.

The end result is still gonna be the same. 

Perhaps I'm still too deep in 

denial to see or think clearly,

avoiding desperately that "end result"

But

baby steps, right? 

Right.