When tomorrow starts without me, and I’m not there to see;
When the sun should rise and find your eyes, all filled with tears for me;
I wish so much you wouldn’t cry, the way you might that day,
While thinking of the many things, we thought but didn’t say.

I know how much you love me, as much as I love you,
And each time that you think of me, I know you’ll miss me too;
But when that day starts without me, please try to understand,
That all of us will find expired the time we had at hand.

After all my time of don’t regret, what now makes me blue,
Is that I do regret one thing - I regret leaving you.
Yes my love, I have been ready and for such a long time I have seen,
The end is clearly in sight, and how much fun the journeys been.

But as now comes time to go, a tear fell from my eye,
for all my life, I’d always thought, I didn’t want to die.
I had so much to live for, so much still I did not do,
It seemed almost impossible that I would be leaving you.

I thought of all the yesterdays, the good ones and the bad,
I thought of all the love we shared, and all the fun we had.
If I could relive just one yesterday, just if only for a awhile,
I’d use that time to kiss you and hope to see your smile.

But then I fully realize that this could never be,
for emptiness and memories, would take the place of me.
And when I thought of worldly things, I might miss come tomorrow,
I thought of you, and when I did, my heart was filled with sorrow.

But when I move on through that door, I felt so much at peace.
And I know there are greater things, when this time on earth does cease,
For there really is no tomorrow, but today will always last,
and every day is really this day and become eternal once in the past.

And you have been so faithful, so trusting and so true.
While I had done so much, I now know I shouldn’t do.
So when tomorrow starts without me, I hope you remember me and smile,
No need for sadness, surely not for me, coz I am happy to have stayed a while.

But now I've gone back where I came from, the earth, the air, the sea,
And every time the sea breeze blows, that's just where I'll be.

Message from me for tomorrow evening

We are all on our way, just so busy being busy with living our lives. It seems like there was no end and we so easily ignore the passing of time. I remember my baby when he was a baby. “It’s a boy!” and tears of joy.
Where did he go?
Where did I go?
Where did we all go.

I remember when I was part of the younger generation, and everything was just as it was. I was young, and had always been young. Old people were old and had always been old. That was the construct of the world that I lived in, and it seemed to have no end. I looked at my parents and called them the “oldies”, and at my grandparents and called them the “olds”.

Now they are gone – all of them. First the grandparents, then the greatest of all shocks, my father was gone. Later some uncles and aunts, then my mother. I am now in the group that my grandchildren look at and call one of the “olds” or whatever is fashionable to call the older generation now. I never once wanted to believe that I would ever be part of this group and here I am. So, this means that I am now at the head of the queue, next to board the bus out of town. Got my ticket (hasn’t everyone?), and sometime sooner rather than later, I will find out that the bus has arrived for me.

The poem above was partly plagiarized, and then extensively molded into my own composition. I surely don’t write this out of looking for pity for some old guy who has finally croaked, quite the contrary. I write this to tell you that I am happy, even relieved, to have fulfilled a life not meaningless, not without impact, and certainly not without interest.

It is only recently that I learn from some of the greats like Joseph Campbell who teaches about the Hero’s Path (the heroes of all time have gone before us), and Carl Sagan of our place in the cosmos. And many others who teach of the power of now – the present moment, and living life right now and being aware of life as it actually is happening.

Now I look at people. I mean, I really look. My baby, that fleeting time when she is totally unpolluted by the environment of people around her. Ahh.. joy.

Get as close as you can, and don’t waste time being over emotional. I don’t know where the bus is, but I know that it has left the depot. Maybe it will be 20 years, and I will have been around longer than mum. Maybe only 20 minutes, and I have already been around a lot longer than my dad.

No matter what, I am trying to live my life in the present moment. What has become very clear to me is that it is usually at the end of a person’s life that they realize that they wasted so much of their time on things that just didn’t matter. They weren’t paying attention when the best days of their lives were happening. I am fortunate enough to have a few basics pointed out to me before it was too late, and I am working on it.