Thank you to everyone who attended our Virtual Book Launch Party Wednesday evening for Alex Franzen’s new novel, “So This is the End: A Love Story.”

It was fun to see some familiar faces and also to meet some of you for the first time!

Alex read a beautiful excerpt from her book and told a few tear jerking stories about how the idea came to her and what this books means to her. We invited folks to spend a few minutes writing and then some people shared their thoughts on how they would spend the last day of their lives. It was unbelievably touching to hear what people shared.

I can’t stop thinking about this question.

I’d love for you to experience the power of it.

Will you stop right now, set your alarm for 5 minutes, and respond to this question: “What would you do if you had 24 hours to live?” 

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Did you do it? Or did you rush right by, thinking “maybe later?”

I really really really encourage to take even one minute right now. Write just three things down that you would do if you had only one day left to live. Watch what it feels like. Watch how your heart opens. Watch how you feel more connected to what is true about you and your life.

It is so essential that we take the time for these kinds of reflections because they help us step into the next moment with greater clarity and possibility. When we name what is true, it is almost a command to our souls to live that truth. 

Here’s my list thus far of “If I had 24 hours to live…” (Aka #Myfinal24)

  • Go to Twin Peaks with mugs of hot chocolate, wearing my favorite pink furry coat and watch the sunrise with my family: Kayne, Bob, and Ian. Marvel as the whole city of San Francisco turns golden with the morning light. Name all my favorite places in this city I have loved.
  • Host a Bubble Flash Mob just as the sun is fully up. Watch bubbles float all across the city.
  • Celebrate with a “come-one; come-all” online video party and invite everyone I know. Ask people to bring musical instruments, poems, or snippets from their favorite books. See all those faces of people I love from all over the world. Revel in how lucky I am.
  • Look through all my photo albums and digital photos with my family and remember countless beautiful, magical, difficult, funny, impossible moments!
  • Buy a dragon fruit and admire how beautiful it is. Taste one!
  • Call my mom and hear her laugh.
  • Find a grassy hill and roll down it like I did when I was five.
  • Squeeze a fragrant lime with my bare hand and let the juice spray in my face.
  • Change hats every hour so I get to wear all my favorites.
  • Donate money to 100 different causes I believe in.
  • Jump in the ocean naked, no matter how cold it is!
  • Listen to the entire “Feel Good” iTunes playlist I’ve compiled — and dance, cry, sing.
  • Eat a huge bowl of popcorn in the bowl that matches the one my mom has and read parts from all my favorite books on the shelves in the living room.
  • Put all those books in the Little Free Library afterward with notes inside them for people to find.
  • Make a two-hour long audio recording of everything I can think of that I am grateful for about my life. Realize that even if I recorded for the entire last 24 hours, I couldn’t capture everything. Bask in good fortune.
  • Sit under a weeping willow tree, close my eyes, listen to crickets, invite a hummingbird.
  • Get a group of friends together and pick up trash along Mission Street, colorful helium balloons tied to our backs.
  • Make 100 audio notes of gratitude to people I love and email them with a subject line, “Don’t listen til —“ with a future date.
  • Give away everything I own! (Pass down my grandmother’s + mother’s jewelry to my two beautiful nieces. Give hats and gloves to anyone who will wear them. Put stuff on the street and post on Craig’s List.)
  • Wear my favorite Fluevogs with the xo’s on ‘em and the orange velvet shoelaces, the ones John Fluevog hand signed in blue pen!
  • Go to Lands End amongst the eucalyptus trees and sit atop that big hill overlooking the ocean with my picnic basket filled with yummy Thai food and a bottle of wine and watch the sunset with my family. Eat mango sticky rice and marvel at the sea air, at my son’s cleverness and wit, at Bob and Ian’s banter, at the taste of fresh mango, at the breeze on my face, at the way other people’s laughter carries in the wind.
  • Fall asleep in Ian’s arms, with the two kitties curled into us, listening to the sounds of Sufjan Stevens’ album, “Illinois.”
  • Die happy and grateful, no regrets.

I’d love to hear your list that you wrote. Or even just one or two things. Whatever you feel comfortable sharing. Will you post in the comments or email me and tell me? Maybe you could also ask your spouse, sister, or best friend how they would answer. It would be a connecting conversation to have this week!

Seek celebration — even in the dark corners,
xo Sherry

P.S. Here’s the link to the replay of our book party

P.P.S. Here’s the link to purchase Alex’s book, “So This is The End: A Love Story.”