A good story has an arc – a beginning, a middle point and an ending. So it is with life.

I read somewhere that we all check out (die) in the middle of some story.

Reminds me of a story . . .

It was late September 2002. I was having a telephone conversation with my father and we were talking football. He was a lifelong Philadelphia Eagles fan and I’ve been a New England Patriots fan since the early 80s. I told him my team was going to the Superbowl that year and he scoffed. “How can you be so sure this early in the season?” I said, “It’s just a feeling.” He said he thought the Eagles would make the playoffs but thought they were a year or two away from the Superbowl.

The Patriots did go to the Superbowl that year and two years later the Eagles went too and, as luck would have it, so did the Patriots.

My Dad died less than a month after we had that conversation. He didn’t live to see either of our predictions come true. He died in the middle of an arc.

That didn’t prevent him from enjoying wherever he was on the arc. He was involved with something mentally and physically right up until he left us.

The arc is our life story. Within that story, we can choose where to focus – backward, forward or wherever we are right now. It’s the focus on our current position that brings us the most juice. Going backward and forward drains our energy and our joie de vivre goes down the drain.

If you’re watching a movie that has really captured your interest you know what it’s like to be absorbed in the moment. If, on the other hand, you stop to look at your watch and determine that the movie has been running for an hour and 50 minutes and it’s only 2 hours long, you suddenly discover that there are only 10 minutes left. You have checked out of the moment by putting your focus elsewhere and have ruined the experience.

Outside of death row residents, hardly anyone knows precisely how much time they have left. It seems a shame that too often we focus on where we’re not, bringing tension and pain to whatever time we do have left.

It’s true that we will leave this plane of existence in the middle of some arc. Doesn’t it make sense to forget about the time line and enjoy the only time we have – now?

I enjoyed that conversation with my father and he did too. Little did either of us know that soon his time would be through.

All the best,

John

JOHN MORGAN COACHING
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