Don't it always seem to go.....

The King of Pop is dead. I'm sitting here tuning into as many radio outlets as I can and listening to interview after interview of people literally dissecting his life. He's not even cold yet. Some of the choice questions being asked just hours after his death: " Was his marriage to Lisa Marie Presley a sham? Did he die happy? And this question to his biographer...."was he really hetrosexual?" I mean, come on....! Is that really relevant right now? (Oh, they've moved onto the 'Gossip Editor' of the National Enquirer.....)

As it so happened, I was in a meeting with one of MJ's former publicists who received phone call after phone call as the news developed. "He's been taken to hospital", "he's dead", "he's not dead", "no, he's really dead". As I write this, the reports say he died of a heart attack at the age of 50. That's it. No more. The end.

After my meeting I called my homie. In recent weeks, we've had many conversations about making every single day count. Losing your job is hard, of course, but when you're not tied to the 9 to 5, the possibilites are once again endless. But death is final. Today we lost Farah Fawcett, Michael Jackson. Earlier this week, Ed McMahon passed. Talking to a friend this morning, I was told of another woman, not even sixty who died of cancer, and just a couple of weeks ago, a fellow journalist transistioned at the age of 42.

We've all had those conversations -- you know the ones...."Life's too short, you've got to enjoy it, make the most of it." And then we run back to doing what we usually do. Working too hard, not making time for those important relationships. Not doing those monthly breast exams (guilty as charged on that one). Not scheduling pap smears, dental appointments (insert annual medical test of your choice). Not eating right. Not getting enough exercise. Wasting time, energy and brain space on dead weight partners/work colleagues (again, insert your dead weight of choice). And then one day it's all over. If you have the chance to look back on your life once it's all over, do you want to look at hours and hours of you at the office, fighting with people and struggling with your health? Or would you rather spend the time laughing about the silly things you did? The special times? Those landmark days - weddings, births, celebrations?

We really do have a choice.

I remember the story of a guy who worked for the same company as me. 'Bob', we'll call him, couldn't have been more than 40, if that. He had a young family and had been feeling ill for a while. Bob kept putting off his doctor's appointment because he was 'busy at work' and he had to finish his project. Very important project. On the day he finally decided to go to get himself checked out, he died. The project was never finished and the world still turned. People talked about Bob for a couple of days. Flowers were sent to the funeral and a card posted to his heart broken family. Fast forward 6 months, a memorial was held for Bob. No one from the office went. Why? They were too busy working.

I didn't know Michael Jackson or 'Bob' or the countless other people who live to work, not work to live. But the message is coming through loud and clear.

• Money doesn't buy you happiness
• Surround yourself with people who truly love and appreciate you
• Laugh as much as you can
• Don't spend your entire life striving to do better to prove a point to others
• If anything happens to you, people in the office won't care after a week....

Feel free to add to this....and go and do something that makes you happy RIGHT NOW! Cos like Joni says, " you don't know what you've got til it's gone....."

xx