Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve had 2 weddings and 2 funerals in our family. It sounds like the title of a movie from the 90’s but it has very much been real life. It makes you stop and think a little more about the big picture. Those few weeks seem to encapsulate everything about the journey of life.
On the one hand, you witness the excitement of a young couple getting married with all their hopes and dreams for the future. Then a couple of days later, I was back in my hometown in WA delivering the eulogy for my uncle who passed away at age 75 after a short battle with cancer.
There’s nothing more confronting than the prospect of death. All those hopes and dreams end here. What you’ve done with your life up until then is the totality of your life and legacy. There comes a point when we all face death and the knowledge that what you have done with your life is all you’ll ever do.
I was fortunate to have been asked by my uncle to deliver his eulogy as he faced his final weeks and got his affairs in order. It was an honour and a privilege to be entrusted with the responsibility of conveying to hundreds of people the richness of a person’s entire life in just 15 minutes.
But there is so much to capture in a person’s life that makes them unique. My uncle was a hard-working family man and a keen fisherman who loved the West Coast Eagles and playing briscola, an Italian card game. But it’s the interactions with the people in our lives that we are remembered by.
It’s the second eulogy I’ve done in the past two years. It is a cathartic process that allows you to reflect, grieve and smile along the way as you remember the good and bad times. It made me think more deeply about what I want to achieve in my lifetime and how I want to spend my time before I eventually die.
There is nothing more important than how we choose to use time. It is the most precious commodity in the world. Yet your lifestyle and legacy represent two sides of the same coin. There is lifestyle. To me that’s how you want to live your life, so you enjoy every day and make the most of the time you have.
Then there is legacy. That represents how your time impacted others and what you leave behind. At the end of the day, what will you be remembered for by those whose lives you impact? But more importantly, how will you be remembered by those who matter most to you?
Afterwards, I was struck by the question. What do I want my own eulogy to say? Who will write it? I realized that the reality is we write our own eulogy every day through our actions.
So, ask yourself, what do you want your eulogy to say?
Then ask yourself what you are doing to ensure it’s written.