Book: Chasing Daylight

One of the most moving books I have ever read, Chasing Daylight by Gene O’Kelly (Amazon) was written in the weeks leading up to his death, after he was given 3 months to live. It’s really thought-provoking, but an easy read – I read it one sitting during the flight from Munich to Birmingham.

He was a religious man, and when that came up early on I worried that it was going to be too spiritual for me, but it really wasn’t.

Two major themes – one of mindfulness and being in the present moment, the other of making time to tell people how much you value them, whilst you still can.

The mindfulness aspect was interesting, and he wrote about his struggles to meditate, until he found that he could around water – I’m terrible at that kind of thing myself, but I’m working on being present now, and so I found that interesting.

The other aspect, the goodbyes, was so sad but also so lovely. Moving a lot, not the same, but an ending of sorts, I’ve really appreciated those special times I’ve had with friends knowing that this would be the last time we would see each other for a long time. I wrote about this a while ago.

Are there ideas in this book that we could use in our day to day life? I think so. It’s a reminder that life is short, and that relationships are precious.