If I Die Tomorrow

At the age of 68, if I die tomorrow it will have been a wonderful life and one in which I am deeply grateful. For I have had such blessings as a beautiful wife in a long term marriage of 47 years and three marvelous sons, whose actions help to make this a better world.

I also have three beautiful daughters in law and all the joy six little grandchildren can provide. And oh I've met so many interesting people, many who have served as my teachers, whether they were aware of it or not. To them, I strived to be a good and devoted person.

To have had the blessing of good health has made so many things possible. Business success and to have been a radio personality and a writer and to have tackled so many projects that gave me a sense of purpose and hopefully helped to make this world nicer for others.

Some of the most important work was to serve customers and provide extensive employment in the process, to have shared knowledge with listeners and readers and to have quietly offered a helping hand to others in need, sometimes in gestures as simple as buying a meal for a homeless person and to have given that person a bit of my time and attention.

In recent years, I have also had the blessing of increasing awareness. To notice the flowers in bloom and to inhale their heavenly scent. To enjoy the warmth of the sun and be captivated by the clear blue sky as it melds into the panorama of the distant blue sea, almost indistinguishable from where one starts and the other ends.

It was also to hear the chirp of the birds, the rustle of the leaves of a eucalyptus tree as a gentle breeze caused those leaves to flutter and to hear people enthusiastically greet me, a greeting I gladly and whole heartily reciprocated.

It was to become more aware of the needs of others and to offer them my love and support and to do everything I could to make them feel good about themselves, often people I hardly knew yet as my brethren had always known them. It took much of my life to come to this realization and as a result, I did everything in my power to end wars, including a six year weekly peace vigil of 303 vigils.

It is the lesson of Karma, one most people don't understand. What happens to your brethren will effect you, for none of us is really separate. Therefore, only through love and kindness can we have peace and security. Violence only begets violence.

I loved rock 'n' roll music, and was fascinated with learning and the arts whether it was reading Shakespeare, Mark Twain and a wide variety of other authors on diverse topics or to take a Spanish class at this point in my life.

Life is in constant change and I changed with it, always interested in learning what was new but also in discovering history's timeless lessons as well. It is amazing how those seemingly separate worlds actually intersect.

There were many times when my body reflected lifelong injuries and brought me pain, particularly in the low back and in the left heal, but compared with what many others must bear, these pains are nothing. I neither complained or felt sorry for myself, instead thankful for all the many things I could do.

Life teaches us so many valuable lessons, most of those lessons coming from our failures and not from our victories. So I came to treasure failure and pain as much as I did victory, believing the reward of valuable lessons would follow, and they consistently did. All they asked was that I listen and learn.

In a world of vast poverty and suffering, I also learned that happiness is not contained in possessions beyond one's basic needs. Happiness comes from appreciating what you have while you have it and not in greed, which is to sacrifice your essence to have more, in an endless pursuit of possessing what you can never really own.

Nothing you "own" can ever go with you at the end of what is a very brief life, a life that is precious if you choose to treat it that way.

Many people wish to live what they think is a very long life, while ironically not wanting to grow old. That is a contradiction that can never be honored. In my case, I never wanted to grow old and frail for it would be a curse to have a powerful mind in a weak body and worse yet to have a failing mind in a weak body.

Instead, I chose to live life to the fullest in pursuit of what I felt was important in each cycle of my life. Death will come when it does as the natural flow of life, without me worrying about it.

If my life has ended because of another person, I forgive that person, and I ask those that love me to forgive that person as well. There is never happiness in bitterness and hate and life is too brief for anything but the pursuit of happiness and the willingness to help others, not hurt them.

I learned to seek God in each person and I hope you will too.

I strived to grow into a person guided by his Higher Being and not by his ego and I hope that is something I attained. I have not attained it consistently at the time of this writing.

My life was never one to be mourned, but celebrated as I hope yours is as well. So if I am gone at the time you read this, please know I never really left at all but instead, I am with you, for I am with you in spirit and with love. And my love for you can never die, nor can my spirit, which reaches out to you in compassion and joy.

Dick