Say you learned you only had three months left to live. You'll be healthy those three months, but after that you'll be homebound and too sick to do much of anything. Ya gotta make that three months count, then.

What would you do with that time? What would you start doing and what would you stop doing?

Me, I'd spend every one of those 90 days posting here.

Heh. Just kidding.

I would stop doing two things. I'd stop exercising (although I might keep playing tennis).

I'd stop playing piano. For some reason, I enjoy piano, but if I know I won't have time to get any better, then I'd stop pushing myself.

I would take my kids to Paris, definitely. I'd also consider a trip to China or Egypt, because my son wants to go there.

I would eat so much crap you wouldn't believe it. Sushi, pie, steak. I would stop eating that farm-raised salmon for one thing. Make it line caught for me. And I'd have lobster for breakfast. I'd drink a lot too -- the best wine I can find.

I'm not sure what I'd do spiritually. Study up, I guess. . . .

I would sail around the Roaring Fourties in a small sailing boat and let my destiny decide if I will return or not.

IMO this alternative is much better than to suffer for the rest of my life in a (hospital) bed.

xuser

I'd spend every moment with family and friends making great memories for all of us........travel, games, food, nature, skydiving, scuba-diving, exploring, etc. Anything to be with those I love.

Quit job.
Empty the 401k.
Refinance house with new 40 year loan pulling maximum equity out.
Travel with my sweetie.
Visit those I love.

Skydive.
Scuba Dive.
Parasail.
Fly in a glider.

Travel the world to attend classical concerts of the top talent.

Stop worrying about everything.
Tell certain people to go screw.
Tell certain people I love them.
Take up meditation.
Quit my job or at least go part time.
Cash in my 401k and buy a new piano.
Play piano more than ever. Start working on those pieces I've always wanted to play but haven't yet started.
Go dancing multiple times a week with my new boyfriend.
Sit in the garden quite a bit.
Visit with animals and nature as much as possible.
Try to write down my thoughts.

Thanks, Cindysphinx, that was therapeutic!

Well, I would travel and hangout with family and friends. I'd definitely head for Arizona....yeah,
probably have lunch with Nina once a week..
I'd make a point to hear many pianists that I've not heard yet, with Argerich being at the top of the list. I'd head to DC and pigout on lobster with Cindy...then head to Maine for more lobster with Kathy, well and Jack, too. And when I visited my wonderful cousins in Frankfort, I'd take the short ride to Plainfield. If you're not followin' me, Matt lives in Plainfield. Well, I guess you get the general idea. I'd visit tons of people. I LOVE people!

Since my kids are young still, I'd cash out everything and sequester some buckazoids to make sure they have enough for a reasonable college education and perhaps a good down payment on a small starter house. (I'll have to rely in good investments!)

I'll take a big chunk of the rest and ask some of my favorite pianists over to my house to play for me in my own living room. I'll invite my fave PW friends over to listen. (Eldon, we can skip lunch that day and you can come for the concert!)

Better yet, I'll invite everyone to my teacher's house, as he has a much nicer piano than me. Plus I wouldn't have to clean up, because I'd play the pity card. Shameless, I know. :rolleyes:

Really, the only things I can think of doing would be:
-Putting together some type of written memory for my son so he'd know & understand who his mother was.
-Putting together all I know about our family history so future generations would know where we came from.
-Dividing up all that is special to me & giving it away to those I love.
-Spending as much time with my son as possible so perhaps my image/voice/touch/etc. could be etched in his young 10 yr old mind.

I would take my family & Alex & a couple of friends travelling, and I would see as many places as I could before the 3 months were up.
I can't think of anything else to do other than to be with people I love, and to travel.
I'd probably spend five minutes or so of it here writing my Last Post!

Sarah,

Why wait? Write that last post now!

Cindy -- waiting patiently

I was thinking of a last post too.
But I'd never write it now.
I plan to stick around, and my last post may turn some people against me even more than they currently are.
I just don't care to deal with their hostility.

Do that now, we never know how long we'll be around...

i'd suggest that every one of you do what is on your list now. reality is that you could be hit by a truck and die this afternoon. we delude ourselves into thinking we are immortal.

on a regular basis, i take a look at my life in the context of what if i were to die very soon. it's a good barometer of how well my life is tracking with my values.

i also do things that deliberately confront death on a regular basis--like hiking alone in the backcountry--to remind me of my mortality and what is important in life.

for me, what matters is having my affairs in order so that they won't be a burden to my loved ones (i helped out when a friend of ours died of cancer a few years ago and the financial and property mess she left behind was a huge burden to many of us), and doing the creative work i was meant to do in this life.

aside from that, what matters most to me is letting myself be led, moment to moment, through life, and being fully in the present. i trust that life is going to unfold in the most beautiful way, and then let it happen.

I know, I know. You are supposed to live each day as though it is your last. You're not supposed to assume a future.

But that would feel utterly irresponsible. I feel like half of the decisions we make are those calculated to leave us in a good place when we retire. Or when the kids go to college. Or when our good luck runs out.

Oh, well. I could always write my last PW post now . . .

:clears throat:

YOU PEOPLE DESERVE EACH OTHER!

I'd refuse to eat that fish my girlfriend and her wicked liberal accomplices have tried to get me to eat, i've seen that episode of the Simpsons, you don't cut it right and BANG you spend the next 24 hours fishin and huntin with your dad.

WI,

Honest, the fish was supposed to be *tasty!*

Did ya try the Old Bay? Didya, didya?

Y'see your honour they're at it again with the fish, pokin at me with it's pointiness in a witness harrassment kinda way. Old Bay? never smoked it.............i didna, i didna.

Admit it. The fish only had lemon and butter.

I thought you Brits liked them there fish 'n chips.

Ok so i lubricate the neck with butter and drink the citric acid equivalent of 47 lemons, so the fish slips down in a slippery ascerbic sheath? great, dining the medicinal way. Thank you Cindy, i was planning on inviting you out to lunch, but if you think i'm going to meet you at the A & E?

"A&E?"

That's a cable channel, right? "Arts and Entertainment" channel.

Gee, what a, erm, nice idea!

Accident and Emergency, does'nt that happen in the states? (where did all the Liberals go when GW got back in the power saddle then?)

I would wreak vengeance.

I would want to be 7 months pregnant.

Marry my sweetie.

Rent out Carnegie Hall and every major hall in the world and have my piano duo perform in them.

Travel with my sweetie wherever he wants to go.

Have a vacation just with my dad.

Elena
http://www.pianofourhands.com

if i had 3 months to live:
i would eat nothing but chocolate - and i mean GOOD chocolate; spend all my money, borrow as much money as i could and spend it too.

only thing with my luck, i'd probably be miraculously cured and live another 30 years. then i'd be fat and broke. hey, wait a minute, i already am.

gw

I'm only 23 (almost 24) and into piano music (mostly Christian music but I occasionally play other styles.) If I found out I had 3 months to live, I'd try to find a Bosendorfer Imperial to record somewhere between 1,000 and 5,000 songs (if not more) on, then some of my friends could decide what ones they want to put on CDs, MP3 CDs, IPods, etc. Also in that time I'd try to visit most of my friends in several places across the country.

People have told me that if they find out that they're going to die soon for sure, they would go and rob a bank. :rolleyes:

I'd probably go on some trips that I've always wanted to go on, one of them definately being Warsaw, Poland. I want to see as many things there having to do with Chopin as I possibly can.

I'd spend all the rest of my time with family and friends.

I would take my fiance to Italy to meet my family there.
travel around Europe with him
Marry him in Ireland with his family there and mine.
find place in Europe so that I give a concert for his family and mine.