Life is for living! “Don’t live with regrets” says book author Bonnie Ware. Photo courtesy exumguides.
A short book written by Australian Bonnie Ware in 2012, has been translated into 27 languages, and reminds us of our own mortality and what life is really all about. Ware chronicled some of the regrets those under her palliative care revealed while in their final days.
In her book titled, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing, author Bonnie Ware lists the top five regrets those in their twilight years expressed to her, as:
I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.- I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
- I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
- I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
- I wish I had let myself be happier.
I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
Ware revealed wisdom she gained from her aged patients throughout the 246 page book. Reviewer Beverlee Warren revealed more of those wise gems: “Success doesn’t depend on someone always saying yes”; “Expressing our feelings is a necessity for a happy life”; “If ever you feel strong enough to look at life honestly, spend some time in [a nursing home]”; “Loneliness isn’t a lack of people. It is a lack of understanding and acceptance”.
What most should get out of this little book is that life is for living and you’ve got to take time to live it every single day regardless your age. We were not created to be a machine and slug out a cardboard replica type of life.
Each day you can make the opportunity to get out of the humdrum of the 9 to 5 gutter or whatever other rut you happen to be in. Get out of the normal routine! Go to the ballpark and keep score, or announce the game, play 
catch with your kids, build a snowman or sandcastle, get a pencil, pen or paint and draw or paint a picture, turn off the TV, walk around the block, run in a race (this writer did after recovering from Covid!), go repelling, canoe down a river, travel a road little traveled, get off the Interstate, sing the national anthem or a song in public, stand up in front of a crowd and recite a poem or just let your voice be heard, take time off and go to the beach or mountains when its not vacation time, tell a friend you appreciate them or that you love them—while they’re living, phone a high school chum you haven’t spoken to in many years, eat an ice cream cone in the winter time, take a cruise, dream by a pond with your shoes off. There’s lots more you can think about, just do it! Live without fear!
My 87 year old father has long said to “live while you’ve still got smoke in you”. Another way of saying that could be live while you’ve still got a flame burning. Enjoy life while you’ve got it! You only go around once in this world, live with all the gusto you can muster and make the most of it! Regardless, don’t get to the end of your smoke and have regrets.
Michael Reed is Editor and Publisher of The Standard newspaper, print and online, and TheStandardSC YouTube channel where many video reports may be found. Please share freely and donate to The Standard on this page to assure the continued availability of news that is ignored too often by the dominant media.
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