The Last Lecture

Did you watch? It was on ABC tonight. Randy Pausch is truly amazing. He's dying of pancreatic cancer which spread to his liver and spleen yet he is living his life in the now, focusing on today and not tomorrow. He was given 6 months to live, and its now been 8 months! He cherishes every moment that he has with his wife and children yet still finds time to share his valuable time with others. We all live our lives in the future never focusing on what we have in front of us now. Isn't it funny how we never even notice. There are many of us who are sick, myself included, and we focus on whats going to happen next week or the next. People worry about how they are going to pay this bill or that bill. By doing this we never really focus on the now. I think that with society living life this way we miss a lot of the little great moments in our lives.

Moments of our children playing in the living room. Your spouse giving you a peck on the neck. A simple wave from a stranger. Things that people used to cherish years ago are now easily overlooked in the hustle and bustle of our rushed daily lives. I know for me I have been so worried about getting into Nursing School, working myself to death and using all of my spare time to study or work on homework. Last week though that changed, I had a peace come over me and now I'm stepping away from it, not giving up just not stressing about what I can't control. It's amazing how much better you feel ironic as it sounds.

What about you ... have you been stressing over something that's keeping you from focusing on the now?

When you get a moment go watch Randy's Last Lecture at Carnegie Mellon. Its 76 minutes long but I think that its a great lesson to learn.