When the student is ready...

When the student is ready the teacher arrives. In my case the teacher has come in the form of a book. As soon as I decided to live next year as if I only have A YEAR TO LIVE, I came across a book by Stephen Levine. For over twenty years Stephen and his wife Ondrea have worked gracefully, courageously and creatively to help thousands of people approach their own death with peace, honesty, and an open heart. I have admired their work for many years. The book I found is aptly called A Year to Live.

Turns out my idea is not knew. Stephen lived a year as if it was his last. This book shares his experiences and offers ideas, meditations, and practical advice for living each moment, hour and day mindfully.

Most teachers and spiritual guides from Jesus, Buddha, and Socrates to current day teachers like Eckhart Tolle and Adyashante teach us to practice dying before we die. I've never really understood what is meant by that, but I'm hoping to unravel that mystery over the next year.

I'm hoping that living with this sense of urgency will create a radical shift in consciousness - am I wanting too much? Perhaps. But my experience of those who've been close to death is that a shift does happen. Hearts open, truths are told, loved is expressed, fears are shed - at least for those who are ready to embrace the next adventure.

I've also been with one friend for whom the opposite was true. He shut down as fear overtook the man he use to be. It was heartbreaking. I'm not sure if he was filled with regret, or what it was he feared, but his last days were torturous to witness. I can't imagine how horrible it was to be him during that time.

I don't want to get to the end of my life overwhelmed by fear or filled with regret. But I'm not doing this experiment because of what I don't want. I'm not a person with many regrets, and I'm pretty good at facing my fears and doing things that scare me. In fact one of the reasons I know this experiment is right for me is because it scares me, and I like to explore my fears all the way through to the other side. But mainly I'm doing this experiment to see how much richer, fuller, and deeper my life might become.

Perhaps my life will change in bold and wonderful ways. I'll become a source of joy and inspiration to those around me. Possibly nothing will change and I'll discover that what I have now is as good as it gets. Or maybe I'll find the whole thing is just too damn hard, and I'm not really up to the challenge. That's what makes it an experiment.

Would you like to join me on this journey? Since telling others of my plan, nine people have agreed to also live 2010 as if they only have A YEAR TO LIVE. We're starting January 1st and I'd love to have you join our experiment. If you are interested, let me know.