The future is promised to no one, live for today. Living in the moment is a conscious effort. We are always looking at the future and the past. We are thinking about a meal that we will have later in the day, while when are eating one right before us, failing to enjoy the moment we are in. We are constantly reliving past triumphs and hurts. We spend time worrying about things which we have no control over, and negative possibilities which may never occur in our future. Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live. I think that there is a universal belief in people considered great thinkers that non-engagement in the moment was wasting what (actually very little) time that was given to us. In my own case I found that a life without part of it spent in service to others was one poorly spent. Essentially that the purpose of life, is a life of purpose. Lives, like money, are spent. The question is; what are you buying with yours? Having given this a great deal of thought while laid up in bed, I tried to understand what people way smarter than me had to say about living fully. Here are a few of my favorites.

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. Abraham Lincoln

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that the stuff life is made of. Benjamin Franklin

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Helen Keller

You don't get to choose how you're going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you're going to live. Joan Baez

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. Mark Twain

Our care should not be to have lived long as to have lived enough. Seneca

And a more contemporary pearl; from an unlikely source...
Life would be much easier if I had the source code. (OCF Webmaster and computer programmer extraordinaire, Chester)

Personally I believe that life is about living each day with a purpose. Through OCF I have found one of significance to me. If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I suspect I would just type a little faster.....

Brian, stage 4 oral cancer survivor. OCF Founder and Director. The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.