“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body. But rather, to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up,totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming …. WOW what a ride.”
― Mark Frost, The Match: The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever
When I visit my father’s grave, this tombstone always jumps out at me.
I will be writing a lot in the next few weeks about why I have not been keeping up with posting (don’t worry, it’s happy and my activities very much relate to topics on this site), but in the meantime and in the spirit of the Halloween holidays I wanted to post a tombstone that says more about life than a lot of other words that written to inspire readers.
How interesting that someone put this saying on their stone. When I am standing in a cemetery and thinking about all of these people that died, it makes me wonder whether they did ate healthy and did yoga every day, or whether they drank Jack Daniels and drove their cars too fast.
Sometimes as an empath, in the effort to stay comfortable (which IS important – indigos and those sensitive to energy are susceptible to being overwhelmed by a spider farting on the other side of the planet… Well, I am, at least…), but sometimes we also tiptoe through life in order to keep the balance.
Do you find that to be true?
The most interesting thing about this tombstone is that the guy isn’t even dead. “THE END” doesn’t have a date listed.
He was born in 1934.
My father was born almost a decade later and died over 10 years ago. He lived his life carefully and mindful of self preservation, but I sometimes think he missed out on fun because of it, and he still ended up dying a slow and very painful death decades before the owner of this tomb, who loves Jack Daniels so much he put a bottle of it on his tombstone.
Sorry if this sounds morbid. It’s not meant to be. I just wanted to share a somewhat personal and profound moment I had about a week ago when I last visited the burial grounds.
After I took the picture, I walked back to my father’s grave to have one last goodbye. I pat his stone with my hand as I always do, and sighed, “You should have been hanging out with that guy… we might still have you around.”
And even if that’s not true, to think that any life’s breath was spent not in the effort to live full-on, it seems like a waste.
Obviously, it is a balance, because you have to make it to tomorrow intact enough to enjoy “the ride”, but this saying reminds me that an inspiring way for me to fully live is to be willing to move vivaciously through life, both the joyful times and the not so joyful.
~ Peace ~
Indigo Leslie