I came across a writing challenge today and it happened to be the first day of the challenge, so I decided to commit to it. You can see that I don't post to this blog often and the last time I did, I was also promising to regularly post following prompts.
I hope this time will be different. Following is my response to today's prompt in the #trust30 challenge.
Prompt: You just discovered you have fifteen minutes to live.
1. Set a timer for fifteen minutes.
2. Write the story that has to be written.
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I've written many stories in my life and have decided this last needs to be a letter, rather than a story.
Having lived my life in recent years attempting to do each day as though it were my last, I find that in these last fifteen minutes, I have few regrets. One is that I didn’t keep in touch with my friends and that I do not have time to do so now.
To all those friends: I think about you all the time even though I don’t let you know. You made a difference in my life. I am happy with who I am today and part of who I am is you. Thank you for being a part of me.
Another, larger regret is that I won’t see four of my children graduate from high school or any of my children have families of their own. I won’t know my grandchildren and I, to them, will be just a name, a few photographs, and poorly remembered stories.
To my children: I hope that you are able to remember the important things I’ve taught you – be true to yourself; do what makes you happy, not what pays the most; try those things that seem too hard so that you won’t have to regret not having tried later and you just might discover something you love; strive towards following a journey with God – if you don’t succeed all the time, He understands; it is never too late to go back to school and become who you dream of being; choose carefully what you decide to stress about.
I also hope that you are able to forget or forgive the things I wish you never knew.
To my husband: You have made me complete and given me happiness that I never really believed I deserved. Your love for me has been so obvious and so unconditional that I have thanked God every day for giving me you.
To my future grandchildren: I have loved you even though I haven’t seen you. My biggest hope is that your parents are better parents than I was and that you find yourself leading a life that makes you happy and serves God above all else.
To the random reader: I am a storyteller, and if I had been given more than 15 minutes, I could have written volumes. Live your life as if you have only 15 minutes. Get to the point. Don’t waste time.
