This is a subject that some find challenging to speak of and still others avoid totally, and yet taking our last breath is as natural as taking our first; the cycle of life in completion. I have never witnessed a birth in person, but have been what I consider a mid-wife at the passing of patients, friends and loved ones, including my husband and father. My mother chose to make her exit only in the presence of a hospice caregiver, so I wasn’t there as I had hoped to be. Each time, there was a blending of sadness and serenity; a sense of surrender to what is. Each time too, I knew that these deaths would come to be. Had I experienced sudden deaths, it would have had a different feel to it, I’m sure. And yet, the truth is, none of us knows which day we will be called to make that transition.
Enter the “Before I Die Project”. I discovered it in Friday’s email from DailyGood: News That Inspires. It offers an alternative to the ‘if it bleeds, it leads’ mentality that permeates some forms of journalism, with an ‘if it feeds (the heart and soul:), it leads’ sensibility.
Candy Chang; the designer of the project is, according to her website: “a public installation artist, designer, urban planner, TED Fellow, and co-founder of Civic Center in New Orleans.” She has taken an abandoned building in Katrina-ravished New Orleans and made it into a magnificent canvas for the hopes, dreams, wishes, desires and visions of passersby who, with rainbow colored chalk in hand, leave a city sanctioned graffiti legend.
People of all ages have written entries such as:
Before I die, I want to:
Raise my children.
Evaporate into the light.
Tell my mother I love her.
Travel the world.
Find my mythical creature.
Live in another country.
Be someone’s cavalry.
If you had that wall before you, what would you write on it?
There is a marvelous piece by one of my favorite singer songwriters named David Roth that speaks to this idea.
BEFORE I DIE © 1991 David Roth
Before I die I want to be
The richest man in history
I want to have a wealth of friends
Abundant love that never ends
Before I die I want to find
A lover who is soft and kind
And one last piece of cherry pie
That’s what I want before I die
Before I die I want to choose
Some different roads and avenues
I want to walk each one in peace
And all my obstacles release
Before I die I want to know
I’ve told you that I love you so
I love you so, I love you so
That’s what I want you to know
Before I die I want to be
The richest man in history
And one last piece of cherry pie
That’s what I want before I die
www.dailygood.org/morephp?n=4695
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