15 Minutes to Live

"We are afraid of truth, afraid of fortune, afraid of death, and afraid of each other. Our age yields no great and perfect persons." ... Ralph Waldo Emerson.


Just joined a 30-day writing challenge linked to Self-Reliance, one of Emerson's works. Today's prompt comes from author Gwen Bell: You just discovered you have fifteen minutes to live. Set a timer for fifteen minutes. Write the story that has to be written.

Go. I think mostly of the time I spent out of balance in my life, because in writing that I warn my children that it is so easy to be seduced by success, by the striving and the need to win, to show knowledge and to have power. In the early days, it is so simple to succumb ... everyone around you is on the same path. In the middle days, it is so easy to yield and continue, even in the face of small doubts and unhappiness; you think that I have almost made it, I am closer than ever. And then, in the later days, you realize that was not the point of the exercise at all. Life could have been different, if you had reached differently or perhaps written down your goals and looked at them hard. Anything could have been different, and most of all you might have used your gifts to greater advantage, with more passion and clarity. Do not be seduced by money or by what is expected. Live so that when there are truly only 15 minutes left, you know that you have lived well with as few regrets as possible. It is in some ways too late for me and in other ways, the perfect time to start a new beginning. There is always time for that. And there are usually many more stories that have to be written. Write them, now.