A Different 30-Day Challenge

No, not a weight-loss or healthy-eating challenge (she wrote, while scarfing down some recently unearthed chocolate Easter eggs...from last year).

This past week, I was in a video/study group.  The broad topic was exchanging something good for something better, and how we often get stuck on the "good" things, instead of the "better" things.
The specific topic du jour was,
"If you had 30 days to live, what would you do?"

I've heard similar questions before.  What if you only had a year?  Two weeks?
The difference this time was the follow-up statement.

"Whatever you would choose to do, however you would choose to spend your time...that's what you value."  Put another way, "What do you value so much, you would make sure to fit it in to your last thirty days?"

The speaker reported his own poll showed no one replying "I'd spend the time making more money" or "I'd buy more stuff."  That intuitively makes sense.

The REALLY interesting part of this question is not the specifics, because most people probably have some variant of investing time in loved ones or long-dreamed-of experiences.

The interesting part is what motivates those decisions.  Why choose that Alaskan cruise with the family?  Why write birthday letters to the children?  Why make personal bequests of treasured items?

I don't know for sure, but I do know that everyone who has moved through my own life has affected its course in some way...even if I can't point to a specific time or incident and say, "That's it, right there."  Every person, no matter how casual the contact, lingers in some form, whether they've just passed through our lives, or truly passed on, like the ringing of a bell lingers in the air, even after the clapper is still. 

I wonder if the real 30-day (or 30-year) challenge is to use one's remaining time to create a sweet, lingering ring.  Some people might call this "leaving a legacy", but I think it's simpler than that.  A legacy sounds big and grand, like ripples that spread in larger and larger circles.   And it sounds like a real time suck, too much work for 30 days.

"What do you value so much, you would make sure to fit it in to your last thirty days?"
I think it's very simple--to be remembered and loved.