Twenty-Five Words or Less

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“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” – Harriet Tubman

I was intrigued by a question in one of my meditation books, Listening to Your Life by Frederick Buechner. “If you had only one last message to leave to the handful of people who are most important to you, what would it be in twenty-five words or less?”

I came up with two versions.

Life is a never-ending raffle. Curiosity buys you tickets. Love enables you to turn them in. And, most importantly — you have to be present to win.

OR

Thank you. You have shown up, laughed with me, made me think, kept me company when it was dark. But that’s not why I love you. I love you because you are amazing.

What would you say?

25 thoughts on “Twenty-Five Words or Less”

  1. Wonderful! I could not do better than answer #1. Buechner, as you know, was a wonderful man of faith who also held doubts about faith in tension together with his belief in it. Thanks for this and reminding us of an important man.

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    1. Thank you, Dr. Stein. When I was researching Buechner recently, I found he is still living (age 95) and published a collection of essays 5 years ago. Yes, a wonderful and interesting man!

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      1. Holly cow! Thank you for this. Not too many productive 95 year olds, but it’s great he still stands on the side of goodness.

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    2. Hi Wynne, I think both of your messages are very profound. Thank you for sharing!

      Mine, to those nearest and dearest? “Read my heart and you will glimpse the depth of my love for you, now and always.”

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  2. I love your words to those you love! It’s incredibly hard for me to pin down what would be most important or profound to say and I freeze on word limits! I think of my children and I’m trying to say everything to them now, all the good I see in them, the hope I see in the grands, the pride in their intelligence and decisions as adults. I suppose, based on my own challenges I would remind them never to be or accept silence, never to accept less than they deserve from anyone and to always, no matter how hard it is, communicate with the people they love

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    1. There is so much to love about this comment, Deb. First that you try to convey your hope, pride and love on an ongoing basis. And second, that is a wonderful list of things to remind them of! Beautiful!

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  5. Two very interesting messages. How long did it take for your to narrow it down to that succinct message and how do you decide which version to share with whom?

    I will have to give this some thought. 25 words is not a lot to say to those near and dear to me but I can see how such an exercise helps you distill it to the most important message.

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    1. It took me about 2 years… 🙂 I’ve seen the question in the meditation book several times before rising to the challenge. I fiddled with it last year a little bit couldn’t get it under 50.

      I suppose making 2 messages was my way around it but this time I fell pretty easily into two short messages. Maybe I’ve been working on it in the background for a while. And I don’t know which message for whom because I’m still celebrating that I could say anything in 25 words — a metric that clearly doesn’t apply to this comment. 🙂 🙂 🙂

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      1. These exercises are always fun – and challenging – but so worthwhile in helping us narrow our focus down to what’s truly important and essential.

        Happy weekend! 😊

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  6. Ooh I love both of these, The first one is so philosophical I had to read it a few times to fully appreciate. The second one is more personal and it would mean everything to loved ones. 🧡

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  7. That are really beautiful message to say to the loved ones.
    What would I say? Well, there’s so much to say in ‘no time’ , but I’ll probably say-

    “See you on the other side, the story isn’t end”

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  10. What a great exercise! Both versions are powerful. I would like to combine them somehow. #1 is clever, but for the sake of my loved ones, #2 would be my choice for what I want to leave them with.

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