Do You Need A Judgment Day Bucket List?

Saturday, May 21, 2011 was slated to be Judgment Day (aka the Rapture, End of Days, Apocalypse).

Since we’re all here, reading this blog and browsing the web, the world did NOT end.

Either May 21^st was any old day or none of US were angelic enough to be called. I’ll leave that for you to decide.

Still, did you stop to think, “Am I prepared for ‘the call?’” A lot of people did.

I had friends who went to church on Saturday and prayed with all their might. Other  friends said “diet be damned!” and fired up the blender for “Rapturitas.” People react all kinds of ways when they believe the end is imminent.

For me it was a day of gardening, shopping and watching Baby Girl discover her nose. Seriously, just this weekend, the kid learned that she has a nose, eyes and mouth (and Mama and Dada do to). This is Earth-shattering stuff for a 12 month-old.

Sorry, I digress…to get back to the whole Judgment Day thing…

I actually had a near-death experience back in November of 2005, a rollercoaster ride that went something like this:

• Tuesday evening my legs started hurting like I’d been to step class and needed to stretch.
• By Friday it was a constant discomfort.
• Saturday I slept all day, thinking I was just overtired.
• Sunday morning, I informed my then-boyfriend, Steve, that we needed to eat breakfast “because they never feed you once you get to the hospital.” (And yes, knowing what I do now, I was a jackass for not running to the hospital on Wednesday for an ultrasound.)
• At about noon on Sunday I was in the ER being told that I had bi-lateral DVT’s (that’s blood clots in both legs for the un-initiated). I was given compression stockings and orders to stay in bed for at least 6 weeks.
• By Tuesday afternoon I was being admitted to the hospital for pulmonary embolisms (PEs are blood clots in the lungs).

For healthy-as-a horse me, this was a very startling turn of events. I was extremely cranky about it because I just didn’t have time for all this. (Sound familiar anyone?)

I’d never even met my primary care physician. I was literally never sick before all this (I always joke that I was “saving up.”) Not only did I get to meet the doc, he called me his “One Percenter” (referring to the lucky 1% of people who survive bilateral DVTs that end in PEs). He let me know I was damn lucky to be alive and hinted that I should stop whining about the inconvenience factor.

I wasn’t just learning a new set of very weird acronyms, I was having my own End of Days.

After my discharge from the hospital, the two things I wanted more than anything in the world were to finish my book and marry Steve. I vowed to do both if I survived the whole blood clot ordeal.

The awful truth is that everyone does not survive pulmonary embolisms. I spent many weeks going to bed wondering if I’d wake up, and trying really hard to be graceful about being deathly ill.

The top things I wanted to do (in no particular order):

1. Finish the book of my heart
2. Marry the love of my life (Steve, who’s now my husband)
3. Drink all my best bottles of wine that I’d been saving for “special occasions”
4. Get my financial affairs in order
5. Make a will, or at least make my wishes known
6. Find a church with a loving environment
7. Tell all my loved ones how much they meant to me
8. Not be a burden to these same loved ones

I was in bed for four months and had to take blood thinners for nine months, but obviously I survived the whole ordeal. I tested positive for a blood-clotting disorder and found out what sorts of things to change in my life to manage it.

• I sit a lot less and put my feet up a lot more.
• I take baby aspirin every day.
• I drink a ton more fluids than I used to
• I’m aware of foods that are high in Vitamin K (a vitamin that thickens your blood).
• I know what thins the blood and which foods make your platelets more slippery
• Flying SUCKS now because, rather than nap, I have to walk-walk-walk and drink 20 oz bottles of water before I get on the plane.

Though patience has never been my strong point, I’ve become more patient with my friends and family and less patient with bad behavior in general. I’ve worked hard to become less of a procrastinator.

For any of you that got twitchy over this Judgment Day business, and even for those of you who didn’t, I have one simple piece of advice:

DON’T WAIT.

• Don’t wait until you have more time.
• Don’t wait until you get the nerve.
• Don’t wait to share your love.

Whatever “IT” is you’re waiting for, try to do it as soon as possible. We’re given two huge gifts in this life: the gift of love and the gift of time. Although love lasts forever, time slides by quickly and runs out when you least expect it to.

Bob Mayer tells his students to look closely at the things that make them angry or generate a strong emotional response…those are the things we’re most afraid of. Write the fears down, as many as you can, and see if they look as scary on the paper as they did in the dark closet of your soul. I’ll bet they don’t.

The ancient Egyptians believed that upon death they would be asked two questions and their answers would determine whether they could continue their journey in the afterlife.

The first question was, “Did you bring joy?”
The second was, “Did you find joy?”

How would you answer these questions? What things would you do if you knew THE END was coming? Would you make a “Bucket List?” If you have one already, are you willing to share some of the most important items with the rest of us?

Happy Monday to all of you! The More Cowbell Mash-up combines with Techie Tuesday tomorrow for a fantastic list of links.

On the housekeeping front, I’ve only heard back from six of my webinar winners. Can the rest of you check your Junk Mail folder and email me back so we can get a date on the schedule? I’m so looking forward to our training session!

See you tomorrow…Jenny