Life is a Verb...

I first heard about Patti Digh's book, "Life is a Verb" sometime last year and made a mental note that it was one I would definitely want to read. Time has a way of moving forward faster than we can keep up with sometimes, and it was only last week that I thought to order my copy of this wonderful book. I've already read it cover to cover and will now be going back through it to follow some of the exercises (called "actions" and "movements" in the book), to increase my own intention and mindfulness.

Patti Digh started writing these essays on her blog 37 Days and was then encouraged to turn the essays into book form. The question of "why 37 days?" is described as follows in the prologue of the book:

At some point in your life, you'll only have thirty-seven days to live. Maybe that day is today. Maybe not.

Such a day arrived on October 24, 2003, for a 6-foot, 5-inch-tall man with a southern accent, a golfer's tan, five World War II Bronze Stars, and a forest-green Lincoln Town Car. On that beautiful autumn day, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died just thirty-seven days later.

That man was my stepfather, Boyce. I helped him live -- and die -- in those brief days between diagnosis and death, a process that prompted me to ask,

What would I be doing today if I only had thirty-seven days to live?

An amazing concept? Not really. What it comes down to is mindfulness. Being aware of what we do, every. single. day. Of how we live, of how we speak, of the things we "worry" about that aren't worth worrying about, of how we choose to think about the things that we do, the
things that are "done" to us, the things that are happening around us. Living intentionally isn't an unheard of concept, but it is one that we take for granted, that we don't give enough credence to. Patti's words and her experiences open the window to shed light on something that has been there all along, but to which most of us have kept the curtains drawn.

A few years ago I had a day where the reality of my own mortality hit me like a sledge hammer and I knew I might only have 37 (or less, maybe more) days left to live. And from that moment I began to live a more mindful life. This book has been a wonderful reminder to continue doing that, to make sure each day I find the possibility in life.

What would you be doing if you only had 37 days to live?