Wake Up, Man! Life is Way Too Short!

It was a first for me on January 16, 2013. Even after 53 years in this world, and thousands of hours spent talking, facilitating, coaching, presenting, teaching, performing in front of thousands of people across the globe, I had never, never done this before!
Never had I been in a position where I had to talk about someone who had just died, deliver a eulogy, encourage others to speak about their feelings, plan and facilitate a memorial-type of event. 
I was more than a bit wary of how it was going to all come out. In the end, it turned out to be a meeting that I am sure I will never forget and, most likely, the same can be said for most of the other 14 participants on that evening.

Meir Navon, a long-time member of our Manager-Business Owners' Mastermind group, died last week, 3 days short of his 60th birthday.

He had battled with acute leukemia, overcame the disease with a bone marrow transplant from his brother, which saved his life but also weakened his lungs.
In the end, an ordinary virus got a hold Meir, who with a weakened immune system could not really match the viciousness of the virus, which in the end took his life.
Exactly one week after his death, I decided to dedicate our monthly mastermind meeting to Meir, allowing for each member of the group who wanted to share memories, anecdotes, impressions and feelings to do so without interruption.
I generally run my mastermind groups with a very lively and quick facilitation pace- participants are asked, instructed and guided by me to speak briefly, to focus, to contribute positively and to move on- as such I often need to cut people a bit short, but such is the methodology and it works wonderfully.
However, on this evening we moved into an opposite mode- slow, no interruptions, reflective, not a dialogue but a meeting of the hearts where every heart spoke for itself.

I can say so much about what went on during this evening and what transpired within me, but I won't right now.
I do want to share one major thought, and that alone: that we human beings often forget the fact that we are ALL here on borrowed time, that life is way too short to keep dealing with all the little stuff that preoccupies, divides, stifles and limits our ability to really wake up and live our lives to the fullest! What happened to Meir can and does happen to nearly all of us at one stage or another- we lose control of our lives and start to battle with the "end of our lives".
Let's wake up to that, guys, let's not forget this, ever, ever, ever…
I can see Meir now, smiling at us from above, with a quick humorous and straight comment coming right at me….