Slow Dance: Wisdom from a Terminally Ill Teenager

I have a very good friend and relative going through harrowing health times. He sent me this poem, written by a teenager dying of cancer, and asked me to pass it on. Her dying wish is to have it read by as many people as possible.  Here it is:

SLOW DANCE

Have you ever watched kids
On a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain
Slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?

You better slow down.
Don’t dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won’t last.

Do you run through each day On the fly?
When you ask How are you?
Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done
Do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?

You’d better slow down.
Don’t dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won’t last.

Ever told your child,
We’ll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste,
Not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die,
Cause you never had time To call and say,’Hi’

You’d better slow down.
Don’t dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won’t last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift….
Thrown away.

Life is not a race.
Do take it slower.
Hear the music
Before the song is over.

Update: I am hearing that the poem was actually written by a psychologist.  I thought it might be one of those Internet myths, but since no one could be hurt and my ill relative was so earnest in his desire, I posted it. No harm, no foul.