A Year to Live

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A Year to Live

“What would you do if you knew you only had a year to live?”

It is a question I have often asked myself when I’ve felt particularly adrift–or just overly caught up in the hyper distractibility of modern life.

I always find it clarifying. And, remarkably, the answers always come down to matters of love and letting go.

Letting go of the disappointments, resentments, fears—and especially, the fantasies about how I think life should be. Letting of the wish that someone or something would be different from the way he or she or it is. That I would be different from the way I am.

Love is always what’s left. Love is always the prize.

And the work, life’s work, I see in these moments, is letting go of the disappointments, fantasies and fears—which are the very things, the only things, that get in the way.

Here are three books I love that offer some inspiration on the topic:

Teachings on Love, by Thich Nhat Hanh

Radical Acceptance, by Tara Brach

The Wisdom of No Escape, by Pema Chödrön

And here’s one absolutely lovely conversation I heard recently between Buddhist teachers Sharon Salzberg and Robert Thurman on my favorite podcast: On Being with Krista Tippet.