She may die

The following quote is from that cool book, Notes to Myself by Hugh Prather. It really hit home for me. Enjoy!



She may die before morning. But I have
been with her for four years. Four years.
There is no way I could feel cheated if
I didn't have her for another day. I didn't
deserve her for one minute, God knows.

And I may die before morning.

What I must do is die now. I must
accept the justice of death and the
injustice of life. I have lived a good life-
longer than many, better than most. Tony
died when he was twenty, I have had
thirty-two years. I couldn't ask for
another day. What did I do to deserve
birth? It was a gift. I am me - that is a
miracle. I had no right to a single minute.
Some are given a single hour. And yet I
have had thirty-two years.

Few can choose when they will die. I
choose to accept death now. As of this
moment I give up my "right" to live.
And I give up my "right" to her life.

But it's morning. I have been given
another day. Another day to hear and read
and smell and walk and love and glory.
I am alive for another day.

I think of those who aren't.

~Hugh Prather

Notes to Myself

If I had only ...
forgotten future greatness
and looked at the green things and the buildings
and reached out to those around me
and smelled the air
and ignored the forms and the self-styled obligations
and heard the rain on the roof
and put my arms around my wife
... and it's not too late.

~Hugh Prather