Today is the day!

As we entered the eleventh month of Jason Stevens' pursuit of the ultimate gift, I realized that during this month we would pa.s.s the one-year anniversary of Red Stevens' death. My thoughts were often of my longtime friend and companion.

Red Stevens and I had come from two totally different worlds, and outwardly we had seemed to have very little in common. But somewhere, we had found a point of common ground between us that enabled us both to develop and nurture a friendship through five decades.

I will always remember Red Stevens as being bigger than life. While I felt comfortable in the confines of my office in Back Bay Boston, Red Stevens always seemed at home in Texas. Somehow, it seemed to fit him. It takes a place like Texas to build men like Red Stevens.

I had heard it said before that no one is ever alone if he or she has just one friend. I came to believe that no one could be alone if he or she ever had a friend like Red Stevens. I knew he would always be with me. I felt pride and responsibility that he had selected me to accompany Jason through each step of the journey toward the ultimate gift Red had planned for him.

These thoughts were in my mind when Jason Stevens arrived, and we settled into those familiar places in our law firm's conference room. Right on cue, Red Stevens came to us once again via the videotape and the large screen at the end of the room.

He smiled and boomed, "Congratulations, Jason. Since I am talking to you today, I know that Mr. Hamilton approved of your handling of the gift of grat.i.tude last month.

"Jason, I want you to know that as I was contemplating the ultimate gift I wanted to present you through my will, I spent a lot of time thinking about you. I think you gained a permanent place in my Golden List each morning. I am thankful that you and I share a family heritage, and I sense a spark in you that I have always felt in myself. We are somehow kindred spirits beyond just our family ties."

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Jason nodding his head as Red spoke.

Red continued. "As I have been going through the process of creating my will and thinking about my life and my death, I have considered all of the elements in my life that have made it special. I have reviewed many memories, and I carry them with me like a treasure.

"When you face your own mortality, you contemplate how much of life you have lived versus how much you have left. It is like the sand slipping through an hourgla.s.s. I know that at some point I will live the last day of my life. I have been thinking about how I would want to live that day or what I would do if I had just one day left to live. I have come to realize that if I can get that picture in my mind of maximizing one day, I will have mastered the essence of living, because life is nothing more than a series of days. If we can learn how to live one day to its fullest, our lives will be rich and meaningful.

"Jason, during the next thirty days, I want you to plan how you would live the last day of your life. And at the end of the month, I want you to give the details to Mr. Hamilton. I think you will discover how much life can be packed into one simple day, and then I hope you will discover the same thing I have discovered. Why should we wait until the last day of our lives to begin living the maximum day?

"You have all of the tools and elements you will need to design this last day for yourself. I wish you well today and every day of the rest of your life."

Red Stevens vanished from the screen.

Jason let out a deep sigh and said, "You know, I've never really thought about dying or the last day of my life."

I smiled and responded, "When I was your age, I didn't think about it much, either, but I think what your great-uncle is trying to teach you is that there is a lot to be gained by thinking through the process; and I believe the younger you are when you learn this lesson, the more quality you will have in your life."

Jason and I rose and shook hands, and he left to go about his month of discovery in the realm of the gift of a day.

Unlike Jason, I had, indeed, thought quite a bit about how I might spend the last day of my life, and all of the things I would want to pack into that one twenty-four-hour period. These thoughts were much on my mind throughout the entire month.

At the end of the month, Jason Stevens entered my office with the demeanor and carriage of a man on a mission. He sat down in one of my client chairs, and Miss Hastings took the other.

"Jason, it is wonderful to see you again," I said, "and I hope the month has been fruitful for you."

"It has been great," Jason blurted out excitedly, "but I'm not sure a day is long enough to cram in all the things I would want to do before I die. What I found to be amazing is the fact that the things I would most want to accomplish on the last day of my life are really simple and ordinary things.

"When I first started thinking about the process, I thought I would want to climb a great mountain or create some wonderful art or something. But after much thought, I have come to realize that my perfect day would be filled with the best of simple things."

Jason paused and looked at both Miss Hastings and me. He reached into his jacket pocket and drew out a single sheet of paper. He glanced at his notes and began again.

"Well, on the last day of my life, I would like to wake up early in the morning-there is certainly no time to waste. Before even getting out of bed, I would go through all of the things I am grateful for and create my mental Golden List. But unlike the list we talked about last month with ten things, I think on the last day of my life I would have to add many more things to the list for which I am thankful.

"I would like to have an early breakfast outdoors on a patio or balcony with a group of very special friends. I would tell them how much they mean to me, and I would want to give them each a gift that would be the recipe for getting the most out of their days and, therefore, their entire lives.

"After breakfast, I would want to call a number of people who have been special to me-people like Gus Caldwell in Texas, the people at the Red Stevens Library in South America, all of the boys at the home up in Maine, and many others. I would also want to call all of my relatives and other people with whom I have not had a good relationship. I would want to tell each of them I am sorry for whatever has gone wrong between us, and I would want to ask them to do what I am doing, which is simply hold on to all the good memories and release all the bad ones.

"For lunch, I would like to take my friend Brian to his favorite restaurant and buy him anything he wanted. I would ask him to share with me the dreams he has for his life.

"During the afternoon, I would like to enjoy some of the simple pleasures, including a walk in the park-hopefully with the little girl named Emily I met earlier this year-followed by a trip to the art museum and a brief outing on a sailboat around Boston Harbor.

"Then, in the evening, I would like to have a special banquet for all of my friends and their friends, and I certainly would want both of you there. At the end of the banquet, I would like to step up on a platform and share with everyone the gifts that my great-uncle, Red Stevens, left to me. I would want to have it videotaped so that my dream of sharing this wonderful gift with other young people like me could go on after I died."

Jason glanced up at Miss Hastings and me, and then back down to his sheet of paper. After several moments, he folded the paper and put it back into his jacket pocket. "Well, there are many other things I thought of to do, and they're all good," he said, "but those are the ones I thought I could fit into my last day."

I smiled and responded, "Jason, I can't think of any better way to spend one's last day. I think we can all agree that you have come to a wonderful understanding of what your Uncle Red had in mind in the gift of a day."

Jason stood and shook my hand warmly and actually gave Miss Hastings a brief hug. As she escorted him to the elevator, I couldn't help but remember the sullen, angry young man who had come into my office just one year earlier. I knew that Red Stevens was smiling down on us.

FOURTEEN.

THE GIFT OF LOVE.

Love is a treasure

for which we can never pay.

The only way we keep it

is to give it away.

I must admit to having mixed emotions as I awaited Jason Stevens' arrival for what I knew would be the beginning of our last monthly journey together in this yearlong odyssey of discovery. I was elated about the progress Jason had made, and I felt confident and excited about the future he had before him; but I was also struck with the sense of loss that comes at the end of any difficult but meaningful journey.

I felt, in a way, as if I would be losing my longtime friend, Red Stevens, once again because I would not be able to look forward to these monthly visits. On the other hand, if I had learned anything from going through this transformation with Jason, it was a fact that the best of Red Stevens would always be with me.

Miss Hastings called me on the intercom to let me know that Jason Stevens had arrived. I met them in the conference room, and I believe they both, in a way, were sharing the same mixed emotions I felt.

Miss Hastings performed her now familiar ritual of taking the videotape from the box Red Stevens had left in our vault along with his will. She put the tape in the video player at the end of our conference room.

Red Stevens' image appeared on the large screen, and knowing him as well as I did, I believed he was feeling some of the same emotions we all shared.

Red began. "Jason, I want to congratulate you for making it to the last step of the ultimate gift I planned for you. I am very proud that you obviously made it through the learning process involved in the gift of a day from last month. I do not know what you planned for your last day, but I know it was judged acceptable by Mr. Hamilton. I would imagine that the activities you planned for the day were much like mine-very simple and somewhat ordinary.

"If we are living our lives the way we should, everything should be in such an order that we wouldn't change the last day of our life from any other day. Please always remember that none of us is guaranteed a long life. We're not guaranteed anything but today.

"Also, I think if you will consider it, you will realize that there is probably nothing that you would plan for your last day of life that you couldn't do today or tomorrow. Somehow, I think life's tragedies are made up not as much of the great failures as much as of the simple pleasures and kind gestures missed."

Red Stevens paused, and I could feel his emotions and all of ours as we sat in the darkened conference room.

Finally, he continued. "Jason, in this last month, I'm going to introduce you to the one part of my ultimate gift to you that encompa.s.ses all of the other gifts as well as everything good you will ever do, have, or know in your life. That is the gift of love.

"Anything good, honorable, and desirable in life is based on love. Anything bad or evil is simply life without the love involved. Love is a misused and overused term in our society. It is applied to any number of frivolous things and pursuits; but the love I am talking about in the gift of love is the goodness that comes only from G.o.d. Not everyone believes or acknowledges that. And that's okay. I still know that real love comes from Him-whether or not we know it.

"Since love is a part of each of the other gifts you have experienced throughout this year, during the next thirty days, I want you to explore how love is involved in all the other gifts, and prepare to share what you find with Mr. Hamilton.

"Please remember that your att.i.tude and your performance are still being judged, and if you fail-even in the twelfth month-you will not be receiving the entire ultimate gift I have planned for you. My warning to you is not meant to be threatening, but holding you to the highest standard in my own way is the greatest act of love I can show you."

Red Stevens' image faded, and the screen was, once again, dark.

Jason sat motionless for several minutes. I knew that he was deep in thought. Finally, we all stood and quietly left the conference room. It was almost as if we had been to a memorial service for Red Stevens. I felt it was a fitting tribute to my oldest and dearest friend.

On the last day of the month, Miss Hastings ushered Jason into my office. They both sat in their familiar places, and we exchanged brief greetings. I could tell that Jason had much on his mind.

"Mr. Hamilton and Miss Hastings," Jason began, "I do not have the words to express what this process over the last year has meant to me. I am simply not the same person I was a year ago. I feel that, in many ways, today is my birthday. I want to thank you both for being a part of it."

I noticed that Jason's eyes seemed moist, and Miss Hastings' seasonal allergies seemed to act up at that very moment. I will admit to feeling a lump in my own throat. Jason took a deep breath and launched into his report.

"During the first month of this year, I was angered and very resentful of not receiving an inheritance like everyone else in the family. I was further frustrated when I learned about what I thought then was a crazy plan for the entire year. Then I found myself learning about the gift of work with Gus Caldwell down in Texas.

"At that time, love was the furthest thing from my mind when Gus Caldwell ordered me to dig post holes and build a fence. But as I look back on it, I realize that Mr. Caldwell had a great love for my Uncle Red and pa.s.sed that on to me. He loved me enough to make sure that I learned the entire lesson that my Uncle Red planned for the gift of work. I also learned that there is a certain love which comes from doing a job well. When you can step back at the end of a long, hard day and watch the sun set over a straight and strong fence that you built yourself, you get the feeling that everything is right with the world.

"During the month when I learned about the gift of money, I learned that loving money leads to a hollow, empty existence. But when you learn how to love people and use money, everything is in its proper perspective.

"From the gift of friends, I learned that you can love others in a way I had never known. When you just worry about yourself, you are always disappointed. But when you think about others and their well-being first, everything works out best for you and for them.

"From the gift of learning, I discovered that people who have no material things-but a pa.s.sion to learn and a true love of learning-are really quite wealthy. This love for knowledge has come into my life, and I cannot believe that I was so self-centered that I ignored the wisdom of the ages as I pursued my own self-destruction.

"The gift of problems taught me that obstacles are nothing more than a challenge that we face. Before this year, I looked at problems as something that was totally bad, something that had to be dealt with-or, better yet, ignored. But when you look at your problems through a spirit of love, you realize that there is a grand design to this world, and the problem is given to you for the lesson it will teach you and the better person it will make you.

"From the gift of family, I learned that families are present when love is present. People can become a family when they add love to their relationships. Without love, families are just a group of people who share the same family tree.

"The gift of laughter taught me that in order to love life, you have to enjoy it. And when you can laugh at the good things and the bad, you will begin to feel the love life really has to offer.

"During my exploration of the gift of dreams, I came to understand that life has been given to us with a sense of love for everything around us. Our pa.s.sions and dreams and goals are the outward manifestations of the love we feel inside.

"Before I experienced the gift of giving, I thought that if you gave something away, someone else now possessed it, and you were left with less than you had before. In reality, when you give out of love, both the giver and the receiver have more than they started with.

"The gift of grat.i.tude taught me that we can truly feel and experience love when we remember and enjoy all of the wonderful things we have been given.

"And, finally, from the gift of a day, I learned that if I only had twenty-four hours left to live, I would want to feel and experience as much love as I could and pa.s.s it on to as many others as possible."

Jason paused and cleared his throat. I was just about to tell him that I heartily approved of his mastery of the gift of love, when he continued.

"If I were going to really try to define the gift of love in tangible terms, I would have to cite as an example what my Uncle Red did for me and what he gave me during this last year. When we truly love others, our love makes each of us a different person, and it makes each one we love a different person too.

"My Uncle Red's love for me in giving me the ultimate gift forever changed my life and who I am."

Jason rose to his feet and hugged Miss Hastings. He stepped around my desk and hugged me as well. He thanked us both for everything and let us know that he looked forward to staying in touch with us in the future.

As Jason put his hand on the doork.n.o.b, I stopped him by saying, "Just a minute, Jason. There is one more step in the ultimate gift that you don't know about."

FIFTEEN.

THE ULTIMATE GIFT.

In the end,

life lived to its fullest