What Would You Change?

Day 5

Greetings to my fellow life storytellers!

Did you wave that magic wand yesterday? I would love to hear about the experience!

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Before we go on to today’s post, some housekeeping for those just now joining us…

First, you can always find the 90 Days with Life Souvenirs HERE. Grab your copy of the workbook! (There is a coupon code so you can get it for free in the Life Souvenirs chat on the Substack app!) You won’t receive these daily unless you go to your Substack profile and toggle this to the “on” switch under Life Souvenirs sections: 90 Days with Life Souvenirs. This Video will show you screen recording I did of my test account to set it up in Chrome. And if you aren’t already a subscriber, this would be a good time to take care of that! hint! hint! Continue reading after the image below…

So, by now you know, I like to dive right in!

I have already provided a few other exercises are normally part of my paid curriculum or sold in my store. Today isn’t going to be any different! For the next 30 days, we are going to be walking through the Live the Dash 30 Day Challenge - an abbreviated version will be in the posts.

[Hint! The pages and workbook have ALL of the prompts from the Live the Dash challenge.] Grab the companion workbook for this 90 Day Challenge or, if you are a paid subscriber, download the sheets for today. The link is at the end of the post.

Otherwise, grab a pen and paper!

For the next 30 days, the context is this:

You have just learned that in 30 days you will die.

Today’s prompt:

What do you change?

(other than the fact that you’re dying, of course!)

Then, what is one step that you can take TODAY towards making that change?

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And now it’s time for….. the Song for the Day! Somethin’ Tells Me This Isn’t Over Yet (see what I did there?)

I have playlists for everything, including this 90 Days Series! I’m obsessed with this song right now. Vavo makes country music almost cool. lol! Just kidding, I enjoy some country music from time to time. But you need to know something about me. I will add songs to playlists just because of ONE LINE of lyric! And as I hinted before, “something tells me this isn’t over yet” is what landed this on my playlists and thought it was perfect for launching the Live the Dash portion of this journey. So, I hope you enjoy!

More from My Story - Scary Diagnosis

I’ve been sharing things from my childhood.. but today is something more recent.

Nearly 2 years ago I received a possible, terminal diagnosis. That’s not “possibly terminal.” That was a possible diagnosis that would be terminal if doctors were correct. I lived about two months thinking I would be dead before that Christmas. I didn’t tell anyone. I didn’t want to be accused of being overly dramatic if doctors did come back (which they eventually did) and say, “oopsie! Sorry to scare you, it’s not what we thought.” Answered prayer, maybe? I will say this. I wasn’t entirely confident in their ultimate diagnosis either because that’s what they thought it was before testings. Then testing and imaging they said it didn’t look like that thing. They think it’s this more serious terminal thing… Then came back after finally ruling that out and saying they guess it was that original thing. Keep reading below…

What we do know for sure is that I have a form of liver disease. My best guess is it’s due to the reactivating strain of Epstein Barr virus that I have that scars liver tissue every time it’s activated and it leaves a unique signature scarring that my doctors didn’t recognize on the imaging that caused them to think it was an advanced, rare and terminal liver disease.

I suddenly got very clear on what was important and what was not. I immediately began making changes. I am still working those out.

I am still reminded that I am closer to the end of my life right now than the beginning. A high school classmate and friend died from liver disease a couple of weeks ago. Another friend from my teen years died that same week. Another friend came very close to dying for the second time in a year!

When I was 30, my uncle was just a couple of months away from retiring. He had all of these plans for his retirement. He never got to experience those post-retirement adventures. He died suddenly have his doctors missed (for over a year!) what was going on with his liver. His biopsy results came back AFTER he had died an acute, excruciating death. My dad died 10 years ago of heart issue, complications of being a severe type 1 diabetic. We had just spent the perfect day with him. My brother died 5 years ago, well nearly 6 years ago I guess now in a horrific auto accident.

None of us are guaranteed tomorrow.

None of us get out of this thing alive.

If we aren’t busy living, we are busy dying.

So, which one is it going to be for you?

So, what do you think so far? Day 5 of 90… If you haven’t grabbed the companion workbook yet, you should. My workbooks are cool! (I might be biased - but I think they are!) As I go, I also add a link on the workbook pages of the corresponding 90 Days post.

Would you please share this on your social media platforms? Invite others to this 90 day journey? You may be late to the party and that’s okay. This 90 Day section will stay right here. So, share away if you get value from it.

Please comment and let’s have a conversation! I know that it’s being read according to my open stats. But the point of this journey is to connect to my readers. I can’t do that if this is one way. So comment, join the chat in the Substack App… I want to hear your stories or how a post has helped you in some way or what more you want to know.

Paid subscribers, don’t forget to grab your worksheets for today down below!

Until tomorrow,

MelAnn