If you knew you were dying, what would you do? What would you regret?

This is a topic I've thought quite a bit about in the past, and it's on my mind again since reading Theresa's incredible post. If you knew you had only a few weeks or months to live, what would you do? What would you regret not having done?

I do not consider this to be a morbid topic. I think we should all keep in mind the things we really want to do in our lives and with our lives in order to live our lives to the fullest and profit the most we can from being alive. It's like a bucket list, but with a bit of a more restricted time frame. Instead of "before I die" being a hazy end point, the end is in sight and you have a very restricted time frame for accomplishing things. This is why it behooves us all to take advantage of every opportunity that presents itself.

Thankfully, I don't think I'd have too many regrets. That is due in large part to my philosophy of taking advantage of every opportunity, of going after what I want, just taking advantage of life in general. That's what I did when I lived in France. First of all, I lived in France, I traveled to many of my top places to visit, I became pretty close to fluent in French, I lived totally independently and took care of all of my shit in a foreign language, I liked my job, made great friends, and of course ate wonderful food. I guess I might regret not having been there for a longer period of time, but the two years I spent in France were pretty fantastic. No complaints here.

I know I would regret not having been in a relationship with a man who really loved me. I can't seem to get guys to really like me and want to stick around for extended periods of time. I know I would be sad about that.

I think knowing what to do with your time left would be the hard part. Obviously the most important would be to let everyone I love know how I feel about them and to spend as much time with those people as possible. I would probably want to take a trip somewhere, either France or Northern Michigan, to say goodbye to those places and the people in France. I'd have to plan for the end - what I'd want to happen at my funeral, who should be invited, where I should be buried. Who I would give my stuff to. Writing goodbye letters, writing an announcement in French that my parents could send to the non-English speakers. I'd have to make a list of all of my passwords and sites to update for when I passed.

What would I want to accomplish though? Would I go crazy trying to read all the books I could or watch movies I'd never watched? I think I'd want to spend a lot of time outside, feeling the sunshine and wind on my face, breathing in fresh air. Would I want to write a book?

And how would it feel knowing that the end is approaching, that soon I wouldn't be able to do any of these things? Would I feel calm and be able to let go? Or would I fight it tooth and nail, struggling to stay alive and keep feeling and doing things?

I know I would struggle. I know I wouldn't be able to accept my doctor telling me I have no options left. I will fight and get treatment as long as I can draw breath to say I want more treatment. But I hope too that if it ever got to the point where there really wasn't anything left, that I really did have to say goodbye, that I would be able to let go with grace and dignity.

What about you? What would you regret not doing? What would you want to do in your last few months on Earth?