Don’t fight. Don’t stress out. Be sad…sure. Makes me feel better now to know someone will be sad. It’s OK. It’s how we all are.
But as for my stuff? It’s stuff. I’ll try to be specific where I need to be specific, but in the end, George, hold on to what you want, and I trust your judgment as to what should or should not go to Alaina, Ben, and whatever additional awesome nieces and/or nephews are around at that point. But in the end it’s just stuff. Donate the junk (there are people who need or want it) and give the rest to someone who you know will derive joy from it.
As for my vessel? If there is something to scavange, give it to someone who can use it. As for the rest, dust to dust, and scatter that dust wherever I most recently stated I wanted it to go. Please take notes when you talk to me when I’m alive. I change my mind a lot and it’s important. I often say toss it off the Huntington Beach Pier into the Pacific. Today after almost 3 hours of injesting gluttonous amounts of pure beauty in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, I say scatter the dust in whatever river, stream or pond is looking particularly luminous that day. I’ve got a thing for water.
Wake? Hell no. I firmly refuse. Funeral? That’s for the living. If the living want one, let them have one. It’s flattering, sure, but not necessary. But please don’t fight if someone really wants one…let it happen. I’m OK with it. If people want to gather to touch base, to offer support, to share a memory, I will see what I can do to leave a pocket of cash around to allow for a memorial gathering…involving great food and even better alcohol. If you can’t make it, here are your options:
- Take a walk outside. I don’t care where, just get outside. Breathe. Absorb what sun there is. Feel the air on your skin. Listen to the critters. GO OUTSIDE.
- Cook a huge, time-consumimg and involved dinner, and feed people. Feeding people is cathartic and happy at the same time. Especially when they make yummy noises after all of the huge time-consuming and involved work.
- Go out some where to dance. Club, Ballet, Swing, Tap, Ballroom, Line…don’t care. Dance.
- Pet an animal. Cat, Dog, Goat, Goldfish (ok, maybe just wave at the goldfish). It will lower your blood pressure and increase your Karma. Better yet? Adopt a shelter pet.
- Sit down and eat or drink something perfect. Take your time. Focus on it. Enjoy it. A piece of cheese. A sip of wine. A strawberry. Steak. Consider every chew a step towards enlightenment.
- Listen to some live music. Lately Jazz & Blues has been my thing…do your thing. But let it overtake you…start with your ears, then breathe it in and let it take over your entire being. You may laugh, you may dance, you may cry, you may sing along…don’t make that decision, let the music make the decision for you. Any one is a tribute to you and to me.
And if I really meant something huge to you and you feel compelled to do something every year to remember me (I don’t expect it, but hey…) PLEASE don’t remember the day I left. That’s just morbid and crappy. My birthday is May 8th, which is a pretty good day of the year. Celebrate my birthday by choosing something off the list above, OR by doing something that you think I may like.
Celebrate life.
Celebrate life.
Celebrate life.
I’m going to go change the laundry and sit in the sun for a bit.
xo
en