No… Not talking about “Pony Boy” I am talking about those pure and good intentions inside of people. As performed by First Aid Kit, “Stay Gold” is a song of starting out as gold and becoming tarnished and tired because of well… life. Seeing as to how I am the sole creator of my life and my destiny (what happens when we take control again) I know I can stay gold. Even though I do very much enjoy their gift of music, I will respectfully disagree. We can stay gold, I will stay gold.
While much easier to hand over control, become a victim, or become complacent, ultimately we are responsible for ourselves. I am just as responsible for my successes as I am for my failures and shortcomings. The beauty lies in one
little secret. Nothing is permanent. If you make a decision that you are unhappy with, you can always make another decision. After a recent “trial” that a friend was going through, she told me that when she was being tested she kept thinking of old piece of advise I had given her years ago “Just decide what you want, and if you don’t like it, make another decision.” I had forgot about giving her my riddle of encouragement, and I realized that I had adopted my own bit of [probably drunken] advice. As valuable as an episode of Drunk History, funny, a bit silly, but still might contain some merit and I love it.
What I had came up with years ago was however the key to staying gold. My opinion being the only one that matters, the real goal is to lay my head down at night with love for myself. To live life to it’s fullest, positively influencing as many people as I can while causing the least amount of destruction along my way has always been my mission. By navigating my life with flexibility I can keep myself on track to dying with a smile on my face.
According to The Top Five Regrets of the Dying by Bonnie Ware people regret:
1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
“This was the most common regret of all. When people realize that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honored even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made. Health brings a freedom very few realize, until they no longer have it.”
2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
“This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children’s youth and their partner’s companionship. Women also spoke of this regret, but as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence.”
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
“Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result.”
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
“Often they would not truly realize the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying.”
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
”This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realize until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called ‘comfort’ of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content, when deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again.”
Source:
The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing
These are all decisions that people did not make soon enough while still here. These will not be my dying regrets. We can stay gold, I will stay gold.