Life's too short not to be happy!
"Life's too short not to be happy!"
- Dr. Timothy Sharp
On The Happiness Institute, one of my favorite websites:http://thehappinessinstitute.com/Dr. Timothy Sharp (AKA Dr. Happy) told a story about a friend of his who died suddenly:
Happiness is...telling someone you love them, before it's too late!Just over one year ago a very good friend of mine died. He was only 42 years old, stepped out on to a road without looking, and then he wasn't with us any more.Just a month or so ago, on the anniversary of his death, quite a few friends were reminded of our loss and quite a few emails and messages and conversations were sent and had about how much we missed our good old friend and about what a fine chap he was.It was nice in many ways, to remember our dear lost friend, and nice, also, to hear so many positive words spoken about Sam.And I don't want, in any way, to detract from what was done and said in those days by many of my good friends and, by me, but I do want to pick up on one element of the occassion that made me feel just a touch uncomfortable......I couldn't help but wonder what it would be like if we'd said these things to our dear friend while he was alive!Rather than delivering a eulogy at his funeral, rather than saying so many wonderful things to each other a year after his death, rather than...what if we'd all expressed our love and admiration and respect and liking for Sam while he was still alive?Surely this would have been good for all of us?So I did just that; unfortunately, it was too late to tell Sam but thankfully, it was not too late to tell a few other friends, and my wife and children. And thankfully it's not too late to tell others in my family and social network which is exactly what I intend to do more of and......what I invite you all to do!Tell someone you love them...go on, do it now!
Reading this is especially poignant to me today as I just found out that an old friend died yesterday. I hadn't spoken to her in a few years, but I liked her a lot. She was funny and caring and generous. She made me laugh when I was with her and really listened to me when I spoke. But I never told her how much I appreciated her; how much I appreciated the fact that I really felt heard by her when I spoke, how much I appreciated the laughter we shared.Today I plan to tell several people that I love them. Now before it's too late.I want to post a music video today - a song to remind me to say it now, before it's too late. A song byMike & The Mechanics - The Living Years [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3PbMAo43-I] As always, thank you for visiting my blog. I appreciate it.