You Never Know

Today I post with a heavy heart.  So often we take time for granted.  The time we have with loved ones.  We don't pick up the phone and call the friends we have lost touch with.  We don't write that note or send that card we had planned to "get around to."  We don't visit the loved one we were going to.  We don't treasure the day to day.  What if today you got a phone call that your loved one wasn't coming home?  What if you were told that something tragic had happened and you would never see them again or they never woke up when they went to bed?  With all of this being said it is easy to say "live like you were dying," "live life to the fullest," or "live like it was your last day."  However do we ever listen truly listen to those words?  Often we take our day to day lives for granted.  The reality of it is we don't know when our time is up.  We don't know when we will breathe our last breath nor that of our loved ones.  I have a dear friend who just lost her husband from a heart attack.  She is younger than I am.  A friend who died of cancer.  A grandfather who was diagnosed healthy and then had a seizure, brain tumor, and died twenty six days later.  A faithful church member who collapsed of a heart attack after visiting an elderly woman.  Another who died after battling illness, hurt, and pain.  A cousin who lost a child to cancer.  The list goes on and on.  Death is a hard thing to grasp.  Yes there is closure, and peace for some but not all experience that.  So often we live our lives "going through the Motions" not noticing others' hurts, pains, or much less their lives.  What about the people who surround us daily, weekly, monthly, yearly?  The people we take for granted our spouse, children, parents, grandparents, friends.  We know they won't live forever however we get the mindset they will be around.  Yes I know we get busy and time passes by it is inevitable!  Today, well today should be different.  Being at the hospital for the last week has taught me a lot.  When you come so close to the possibility of death you tend to look at the world differently.  Even simple things like showers, and sunshine become great big wonderful things!  Wow I forgot temporarily how incredible the sunshine feels beaming on you!  What a gift we have been given life.  I am not telling you what to do however today as for me well I am going to hug the ones I have near me a little tighter!  I am going to smile more!  I am going to fill up my day and soak up some sunshine!  I am going to take today and live like I was dying, live it to the fullest, and live like it was my last.  Today I have thanked the Doctor who removed the tumor from my son's brain.  Today I have hugged the man who could have very well have saved my son's life.  Today we live, we live WE LIVE!  What will you do today?