Perfect moments

                                                           

Eugene O’Kelly, in his memoir begins his book with this statement:  I was blessed.  I was told I had three months to live.”  He was told that he had a rare cancer that were the size of golf balls which had grown in his brain.  At the time there was no cure.

He quickly quit his job and started planning out his last three months.  He decided to draw five concentric circles and use them as a map of his relationships.  He would start with the outer circle, the people who he had more distant relationships with and then work toward the middle ring in which was his family.

His conversations were about shared experiences, memories and mutual appreciation.  He worked hard not to make these conversations sad as he wanted them to be special, as he moved to the closer friends he tried to make the experiences more special by going to a great restaurant or spending time in the park.  With these closer friends he swapped stories and exchanged gratitude of their friendship.  He came to think of these as perfect moments.

What O’Kelly realized in his last two weeks is that he had more special and perfect moments in the last two weeks than he had in the last five years.  The reason he felt blessed when he was told he had three months to live is that life left to live.

In reading this it reminded me how my in-laws would never buy my children presents instead they would take them on experiences.  It might be to Hershey park, or the zoo but these were experiences and memories my children still remember.

I know at the end of the school year I often reflect upon how fast it went by, like this is a good thing.  What I am going to do at the end of this year is think about the perfect moments I had during the school year.  The list of student interactions and accomplishments that I cherish.  I have made a list of the people I want to reach out to as I start to make my personal perfect moments

Reflect on how many perfect moments have you had in the past 30 days.  More importantly how many can you have in the next thirty.  What O’Kelly reminded me of is not to wait for a disaster but make the most of everyday.

As always your feedback is appreciated