Remembrance

Remembrance dan skognes motivation blogger speaker teacher trainer coach educator

I started to title this, What Do You Want On Your Tombstone? But…I knew I would get some funny guy saying Pepperoni, so I went with Remembrance. How do you want to be remembered? What do you want people to say about you and how you affected their lives?

As I have aged it seems the years pass like days. It is kind of scary to think that I am in my 60s! What happened? I blinked and all of a sudden I am an old man! I recall hearing people talk about aging and how fast time went by, but I never paid attention until I got to this age and realized there is not much more time on this earth for me. It makes me think about how I want to be remembered.

One of the coolest ideas I heard of was having a living funeral. It is just like a regular funeral except the person being remembered is alive and well…sitting there with everyone. People get up and say how that person has affected their lives, changed their behaviors or thoughts, impacted their goals, etc. How cool is that? Why do we have to wait for someone to die to tell how much they meant to us?

Since you are still reading this, here is my challenge to you. Consider having a living funeral for someone you love. If you are a Baptist you can bring a cover dish for them. It will make it more real for you. LOL.

I think one of the saddest things we can do is not tell someone we love them or how much they meant to us until it is too late. Even if you don’t want to go to the extent of doing the living funeral…at the very least tell the people you love that you love them. It does not count that you told your spouse you loved him or her when you got married 20 years ago. It needs to be verbalized regularly and actions should accompany the words; otherwise it is just talk.

Shalom!

Dan Skognes

5 Responses to “Remembrance”

  1. This article is something to ponder upon. I want to say how I would like to be remembered but having read a post on ‘ Pride before a stumble’ I better just keep my silence.

  2. Cristina Andreescu says:

    Maybe a living funeral it is a cool idea and maybe we all need to hear what the others have to say about us but I do not agree with such ceremonies. I totally agree with the idea of expressing our feelings and I tell you now that I appreciate very much your words and your work even if I do not agree with the message all the time. Thank God, we are all different and we are not bored hearing the same thing every day! I feel enriched with your words and your ideas and I need to thank you again for sharing your thoughts.
    I am a woman and we say “I love you” more than you, men. And we do share our feelings a lot.
    Maybe this is my purpose and my real power and this is why I am here, teaching.

    Shalom!

    • Dan Skognes says:

      I realize that some folks may be uncomfortable with the concept, but the point (which I think you get) is that whether you have the ceremony or not, tell the people you love that you love them before it is too late. Thanks for your feedback. I pray all is well with you and your family. Shalom! Dan