A man named Derek Miller makes his last post — truly, his last post (if that page doesn’t load, try here).

Derek died just a couple of days ago of cancer. I don’t know him at all, just found his last blog page via Fark. He wrote the page while he was alive, with instructions for it to be posted after he died.

Derek writes about perspective. Most of us live our lives thinking we will never die, but when you have a terminal disease and know you’re dying and your time is limited, I can only assume it consumes your every thought to some extent or other. Obviously Derek accepted his mortality and used it to give some good advice for living:

While I was still alive writing this, I was sad to know I’ll miss these things—not because I won’t be able to witness them, but because Air, Marina, and Lauren won’t have me there to support their efforts.

It turns out that no one can imagine what’s really coming in our lives. We can plan, and do what we enjoy, but we can’t expect our plans to work out. Some of them might, while most probably won’t. Inventions and ideas will appear, and events will occur, that we could never foresee. That’s neither bad nor good, but it is real.

I think and hope that’s what my daughters can take from my disease and death. And that my wonderful, amazing wife Airdrie can see too. Not that they could die any day, but that they should pursue what they enjoy, and what stimulates their minds, as much as possible—so they can be ready for opportunities, as well as not disappointed when things go sideways, as they inevitably do.

As I have gone through life, I find the main reason people want to live, whether they realize it or not, is because there’s so much they don’t want to miss out on. The reality is, we all miss out on a lot of things every day. Why do we focus so much on what we don’t have, instead of focusing on what we do have? We spend all our time trying to not miss out on things, and in doing so all we’ve done is focus on trying to not miss out on things, which means we probably missed out on those things as well as missed out on a lot of other things too.

It reminds me of an Eagles song, “Learn to Be Still”

Now the flowers in your garden, they don’t smell so sweet.
Maybe you’ve forgotten the heaven lying at your feet.

We can’t stop death. We can’t avoid death. But what we do have control over is how we live. Live your life well.