Originally posted on Facebook HERE
Took this photo earlier today as the sun was coming up. Then got totally sidetracked for hours, which seems to me to be a common life occurrence. Heading in one direction and getting pulled into another can be awesome or terrible I guess, depending on what it is. Usually it’s somewhere in between. Today, Gizmo was sick, so of course when a dog gets sick it isn’t always in a nice open, easy to clean area – today it was under the bed. He’s fine now, resting on the couch. But… there was a king size bed to undo, a mess to clean up, garbage to take out, a shampooer to bring in, and that wasn’t a tangent I expected to have this morning. And it got me thinking about how everything in life that we take for granted can really be taken away at any time. Everything. You’re reading this now – seeing is a fantastic thing, but people lose their sight every day. Senses can be lost. You love your job, you’re good at it, you never want to leave – but you can be let go without any warning. Happens every day – an unexpected job change. You love your parents, your spouse, your kids… and the only thing guaranteed about their lives is that one day they will all end. Life’s only guarantee is that it will certainly end. Often it is unexpected. And all those plans you made to read that book, to stay at that job, to do things with those people… gone. It’s why knowing what is truly important to you within your heart is such a critical part of life. And knowing that whatever life you have designed and envisioned for yourself going forward – that can change at any time. You can certainly change it by changing your thoughts about who you are and what you’re capable of… but sometimes life throws you a curveball. Sometimes more than one. Then what?… take nothing for granted. Appreciate everything and everyone one as it comes to you in every moment because all we really have is now – and it’s gone… now – and it’s gone… when you get that thought about someone or something that happened years go, and your think “I should let them know how much that meant to me” – do it. Do it now. When you’re talking about how much fun you had on an excursion years ago with friends, and how you should really do that again – do it. Plan it now. When you’re thinking “someday I’m gonna…” – fill in the blank there – “write a book”, “learn an instrument”, “start working out again”… do it. Do the things your heart yearns for – now. Call the people you love just to tell them how much they mean to you – now. Get together with the people you want to keep in touch with – plan that event – now. Don’t let life’s next curveball leave you saying how often you thought about doing, or contacting or meeting with someone or something and you missed out. Because there’s always time for that later, right? Take nothing for granted. What a fantastic thing life is, when we appreciate the wonder and beauty of every moment.
