While I was on my gratitude journey, I was told about renowned columnist Art Buchwald. Art had checked into a hospice because he was terminally ill with kidney disease. He was told to put things in order since his days were numbered. But Art continued to amaze himself and others when he lived much longer than expected. A prolific author, he was afforded enough time to write yet another book, Too Soon to Say Goodbye.

Art had already picked out a number of people who he hoped would deliver eulogies at his memorial service, including broadcast journalists Tom Brokaw and Mike Wallace, former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, film producer George Stevens, Jr., and others. When Art didn’t die as anticipated, he asked these men to write their eulogies early so that he could print them at the end of his book. As Art wrote: “Instead of being memorialized after my death, I get to read what they were going to say now. It’s very rare that someone has the chance to hear his own eulogies.”

I was told that Art really enjoyed reading what his old friends had to say. And I’m sure that those who wrote them received equal satisfaction and closure from the fact that Art got to hear them.

The key here is that Art Buchwald’s loved ones had the benefit of a window of opportunity in which to express everything previously left unsaid. That opportunity did not exist in the case of several of my friends, leaving those who loved them feeling bereft. I cannot think of a stronger selling point for the concept of a gratitude journey than describing it as an opportunity to seize the moment and avoid the pain of regret.