留石快速路限行吗:你将如何度过你的余生？

你将如何使用你所拥有的有限时间？

by CHARLIE GILKEY on DECEMBER 7, 2010 

查理·吉尔基写于2010年12月7日

On the Sunday morning before Thanksgiving, we got word that Angela’s grandmother had died overnight. Her death was completely unexpected – Angela had just talked to her a few days prior and there weren’t any signs that her passing would be soon. One day we went to bed preparing for her family to come here for the holiday, and the next we were rearranging everything to go to them for a holiday laced with a tapestry of new meanings.

感恩节前的那个周日，我们得知安吉拉的祖母在前一天晚上去世的消息。她的离开完全出乎意料--安吉拉前几天还和她交谈过，而且没有任何她即将离世的征兆。一天，我们正为她家人到我们家度假养精蓄锐，隔天我们就重新安排一切准备到她家度过这个被赋予全新意义的假期。

A good portion of my message is about using our finite time, energy, and attention wisely. Most people read that as a purely mundane and practical issue, but many of you know that I mean it in both the everyday sense and the more sacred sense.

我的文中的一个好的方面就是明智地运用我们有限的时间，精力和注意力。很多人认为这只是陈词滥调和实践问题，但你们当中的大多数人都明了我所指的生活层面上的含义及其更深层的含义。

It boils down to this: how we spend our days is how we live our lives. Those moments that unconsciously slip away add up and are gone forever.

它浓缩成：我们生活的方式就是我消耗时间的方式。时刻点滴在不经意中溜走，累加，一去不复返。

Each of us leave residue when we pass. Some of that residue is positive because we contribute to the development of our family, friends, society, and world. Other bits of residue are not-so positive, as we leave things unsaid, undone, and unplanned that others then have to deal with.

我们每人离去时都会留下残渣。部分残余有积极意义，因为我们曾为我们家庭、友人、社会及世界的发展做出过贡献。其它遗留物并不怎么好，我们遗留下未说的话、未做的事及未定的计划给别人来处理。

Because many of us don’t have the courage, emotional fortitude, and foresight to handle some of the hard conversations around the negative residue, the lives of those left behind become harder than they could have been. There’s a subtle paradox here: one of the best ways we can leave positive residue is to prepare ourselves and others so that there’s less negative residue when our time is done.

因为我们中的很多人缺乏勇气，不够坚毅，没有应对留有棘手问题的艰难谈话的远见，我们所逃避的事物变得愈加困难。其中有一个矛盾：能使我们留下好的残渣的最好方式之一就是为自己及他人做好准备，这样到我们死时不好的遗留物就会减少。

We can tell and show our loved ones that we love them. Often and sincerely.

我们可以常常真诚地向我们所爱之人言说表达爱意。

We can prepare our affairs so that people aren’t left with a life’s worth of stuff that they have to sort through while they’re grieving.

我们可以为自己准备后事，这样别人就不用在悲痛中整理你遗留下的生前之物。

We can develop others so that they can take our place in the social web that will endure past us.

我们可以培养他人，这样他们就能在因我们的离去而难过的社会网络中取代我们的位置。

We can learn to let go so that what we’re building lives on without us.

我们可以学会放手，这样即使我们不在生活依旧继续。

We can act on the reality that nothing we accumulate while we’re here goes with us. We start with nothing and leave with nothing.

我们可以将走时“不带走一片云彩”变成现实。我们空手而来，孑然而去。

Every present contains the seeds of a future – a future in which we’re not here as much as a future in which we are.

每个现在都蕴含着未来的种子--一个没有我们的未来和有我们的未来一样。

How will you use the limited time you have? What seeds are you planting, and what fruit will it bear for others? Please use what you have wisely.

你将如何使用你所拥有的有限的时间？你种下的是什么种子，它将为别人结出怎样的果实？请明智地花费你所拥有的。

Rest in peace, Patricia Wheeler. Thank you for living a life so bold and teaching us so many lessons along the way.

安息吧，帕特丽西亚·韦勒。感谢你如此英勇地活过这令我们受益匪浅的一生。