This could be my last day. The world as I know it could well disappear. This could be my last awareness of the rising sun, and perhaps its settling into quiet repose. I have been aware of many rising and settings of the sun, and this could be the last time I am enveloped by that streaming light.
If this is my last day, I want to embrace it with deep attention and an open heart. I want to fall in love again and again, especially with any one I am privileged to have as a companion today. My last day will be spent walking through the garden that envelopes my home, tending to all those small things that invite my attention. I will see every plant just as it is, not as another recognized name on my botanical framework.
On this last day, I will once again visit the fish, and share with them a mutual awareness as we stare and feel what it is like to be a fish. We will have yet another mystifying encounter of one another. I will invite others into my magical garden and share with them the excitement and loveliness of this plant mayhem enfolding all who enter.
On this last day, I will drink warm tea and feel it descend into my inner self. I will cut slices of a ripe mango and allow the juices to drip down my chin. I will taste the salty delight of corn chips and drink the tangy, fruity essence of kombucha. Cashews will be ground into nutty delight in my mouth more than once today.
This could be my last day to be a refuge and comfort to my companions and to seek the same in them. I will not miss this wonderful chance to tell them once again, perhaps in obtuse ways or maybe not, how much I love them and cherish their presence. I will walk with them just a little farther.
I do not know whether this will be my last day to experience the world. But I do know that it is my last chance to be aware of it as it is right now. I don’t know if I will experience tomorrow, but I know that today is slipping away minute by lovely minute. I want to savor it as a day that will never return. I want to know it and love it as the last day it is.