"Linda looks at her calendar every day to see which friend or relative she will visit in which part of the country."

Larissa Kaye Batten (llbeara@aol.com) writes "Soul Food," a weekly column for SpiritSite.com.  

Larissa is a prolific writer whose work has been featured in several publications.  

If doctors had all power, and if God did not exist, my mother-in-law would be counting down the days of her life. She would be ticking off uniform squares on her calendar, preoccupied with how many blank squares remained.

But the days of my mother-in-law Linda’s life are not squares; they are bright, broad, and open opportunities to practice the gift and grace of living. The doctors have given Linda a prognosis of months until she dies. God has given Linda an opportunity to live each day as abundantly and gratefully as she chooses.

Imagine Linda in a room with her doctors. Imagine God sitting silently on his own small chair, waiting and wondering what choice Linda will make. It is not God’s job to convince Linda to choose living. But the doctors have something invested in the stats they have developed for the remainder of Linda’s life. The doctors watch the ball game, waiting for Linda to make her next move. God smiles as he trusts the love in Linda’s heart, knowing full well she has everything she needs in her soul for her journey.

Linda was diagnosed less than a year ago with a rare and devilish form of cancer, Mesothelioma. The doctors told Linda she probably had 9-12 months left in her life. God told Linda she had one day at a time, just like the rest of us, to live her life fully.

I would not be able to call Linda on the telephone today if she did not have a cell phone. Linda is out living, and Linda is not so easy to reach these days. The wheelchair she uses to conserve her limited energy does not keep her still. In fact, her wheelchair is only one way Linda gets around. The RV her son bought her a few weeks ago is how she has chosen to live.

Linda does not tick off little squares on her calendar. Linda looks at her calendar every day to see which friend or relative she will visit in which part of the country. She talks to her friend and traveling companion Jan every day about where they will go next. Linda has a very simple formula for her life now. Her formula is called "Living."

Living. Linda is living. The way Linda lives her life these days makes me ask myself a vital question.

Am I really living?

Am I traveling around the landscape of my soul to hear the will of God? Am I living according to the desires and joy of my spirit?

Am I using my RV to get around? What exactly is my RV? My feet, my heart, my hands, my arms, my eyes, my senses, all the marvelous gifts God has given me to live my life fully.

Am I lying in bed watching the world go by, or am I really living?

I do not wake every morning with terminal cancer. My mother-in-law does. And yet she wakes with a desire to live. To really Live. She aspires to a life of Living.

I am grateful to say that my own physical, emotional, and spiritual challenges in the past decade have given me my own renewed gratitude for life.

Not a day goes by in which I do not wonder how I will live my life for the 24 hours I have been given.

Linda wakes with the same question.

What question do you ask yourself when you wake in the morning?

Do you ask yourself how much you have to get done in the next 24 hours, or do you wake with the most important question I believe we can ask ourselves each day.

How will I live today?

My RV is waiting outside my front door. My RV is my mind, my spirit, my soul, and my body. My RV is God’s will for me for today. My RV is the love of my spirit, the joy in my soul.

What is your RV?

Will you climb in your RV today?

Will you remember to Live?

Living is a gift.

Let us thank God for it.

Amen.

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