Living without Regret

I have a speech that I give to civic groups called Living without Regret.  In it I share this thought. 

“Most elderly people, when they come to the end of their lives and are asked “if you could do it all over again, what would you do differently, they respond, “I would have taken more chances.” 

I love that. 

Dawna Markova says it clearly in her poem. 

I Will Not Die an Unlived Life.

I will not die an unlived life. 

I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. 

I choose to inhabit my days,

To allow my living to open me,

To make me less afraid, more accessible,

to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing,

a torch, a promise.

I choose to risk my significance;

to live so that that which came to me as a seed

goes to the next as a blossom

And that which came to me as a blossom,

goes on as fruit.

Dawna Markova

Don’t die with your music still in you. 

There once was a master violin virtuoso who had to sell his expertly crafted violin.  After selling it to the pawnshop he vowed to one day buy back that very violin. 

Time passed.

He saved his money until one day he went to that pawn shop to purchase back his violin only to find that it has been sold to a collector to be placed in a shadowbox and hung on a wall.

The virtuoso paid a visit to this collector and pleaded with him to sell him back his violin.  The collector refused.  In desperation, the violin virtuoso asked if he could at least play his violin one last time before it became a part of this man’s collection, never to produce another note.

The collector agreed. 

The virtuoso tuned the strings and played a lovely melody.  As the sounds of this instrument filled the room, the collector’s heart was softened and he agreed to sell the violin to the master musician.  How could he deprive the world of the lovely sounds being produced from this finely crafted instrument?  He could not let this violin sit in silence. 

Don’t you sit in silence. 

Don’t let the world pass you by. 

Live your life without regrets. 

-Write your books.

     -Sing your songs

          -Build your dreams.

               -Start your company.

                    -Launch that enterprise.

              -Make that widget.

          -Go on that cruise.

     -Take that trip.

-Write that play.

Get your music out.

Go and live your life without regret.