"If you could eliminate one day from your past so that
you never had to live through it, what day would you
erase?"
"If you could ask a single question of a dead relative,
what would it be and of whom would you ask it?"
-----
These questions come from a little book I've been reading
as a way to begin the New Year. If. . . Questions for the Game
of Life by Evelyn McFarlane and James Saywell (Villard, 1995)
My partner and I have been playing it, throwing out questions
and sharing responses.
Some questions are easy and fun: "If you had the chance to
make any one purchase that you passed up in your lifetime, what
would it be?" (Ah, no contest! The set of antique china we found on the Oregon coast some 8 years ago but were too timid to buy."
Others are a challenge: "If you could choose the very last
thing you will see before death, what would it be?" (That took
some reflection, but, although I'm not a gardener, what I think I'd most want to see is perfect, full-blown rose.)
Still others plunge us into an intimacy we may or may not
have considered: "What is the one thing from your past about
which you feel the most guilty?" (OK, so I'm chicken ? I pass!)
It's a fun game, and a good relationship-builder. And yet I wonder: what happens if I go a step farther, take the initiative of shaping the questions I need to hear.
IF . . . I want to make this year the best one of my life,
what one attitude will I change, starting right now?
IF . . . I truly believe that hope is possible and love is
real, how will I let it show?
IF . . . I want to live so that my values show, what one
thing will I do TODAY?
Your questions may be different from mine, and your answers surely will. But that's the beauty of the "Game of Life". There are as many questions as you need. And only YOU can shape the answers - IF . . . you only take your values in hand and dare to begin.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
? 2005 Maureen Killoran
Maureen Killoran, MA, DMin, is a Life Coach with a passion for helping people connect their strengths with their vision. Maureen offers dynamic individual and group coaching, work team empowerment training, teleclasses, and a free monthly e-zine, "Seeds of Change." http://www.spiritquestcoaching.com