Losing a co-worker, and life's "what-ifs"

Losing a co-worker is hard, especially if it is unexpected.   The Company Chairman died in late August after being very ill for a few weeks, but then the staff and I were surprised at the loss of Gary, our Treasurer, from a heart attack one bright and sunny October morning.  Not only did we lose an associate at work, but he had no family.  It was his "work family"that made the arrangements for the service, cleaned out his office, and my boss will likely be the executor of his estate.

As we age (gracefully?) together at work (most of us are just a year or two apart) we were immediately and starkly confronted with our own mortality.    I, of course, turned to yoga to remind me that nothing is permanent, and as soon as we think things will not change, we suffer, because of course they always do.  

Here's the rub:  we work, for years, and hopefully we save for an expected retirement, a time to travel or enjoy life with hobbies, volunteer work, friends, and the activities of our choosing without the stress of a career.   But of course we know many who are not on this path....they live from check to check -with very little saved for the future.   Then we hear or know stories of people who grind it out year after year with large retirement funds that they never get to spend because they die young, get cancer, or have a car wreck.  

As we confront these possibilities, we have to make choices......choices that can have an immediate impact on our lives.   Lot's of "what-ifs"  - starting with the very real possibility that none of us will live to retire to that life of "choice"....so what if we enjoy it right now?  This moment is really all we have, there is no future that's real, guaranteed, or even possible at this very moment.      "The Power of Now" by Eckart Tolle is an interesting and thought-provoking discussion (some of it is in question and answer mode) down this very road.   I recommend it to anyone thinking about the future that they might not ever have.