Make every moment count

Since my last post I’ve spent time jotting down notes about the things I wanted to talk about in my next post.  On March 21st a friend who I’ve known for over 25 years died suddenly.  He was only 44 years old and he had a heart attack while shoveling snow.  Everything that I thought I wanted to talk about went out the window.  Since his death I’ve been unable to focus enough to write anything.  I’ve spent a lot of time just thinking.  I’ve literally been sitting and remembering everything I could about my friend. We had a very long history.  I thought about our last conversation which was about a year ago. I thought about his last everything.  I prayed to God that he didn’t suffer.  I prayed for his wife and their two boys.  What happened to my friend is very sad and I realize that things like this happen all the time. The point for me is that we all must remember that our time here is brief and for some it’s briefer than others.  The unfortunate part is that we don’t know when our time here will be up.  Sure, we can take really good care of our bodies and take extra precautions in every aspect of our lives but at the end of the day we have very little say as to when our time will be up.  We have to try to make every breath we take and minute we get here count. Live life to its fullest with no regrets.  All of this reminded me of a poem I wrote a few years ago.  It’s titled “If I died today”

If I died today

What would people say?

Would they talk about my work?

How well I did my job?

Would they talk about my love for music, my angelic voice?

Would they talk about the books I’ve written and published?

If I died today

What would people say?

Would they talk about me the person?

Would they talk about how my life meant something?

How my life changed the lives of others

If I died today what would people say?

Would people sit and wonder

What the purpose of my life was

Or would it be clear for everyone to see

That I came

I lived

I fulfilled my purpose

And now I’ve gone on

If I died today

I wonder what people would say

*****

When someone passes suddenly people always say I just saw him or her or something like that.  I wish I could say that I Just saw you or I just talked to you but it’s not true.  I can’t remember exactly the last time we spoke, but it’s probably been almost a year now, and I’m so sad about that now because now I can’t hear your voice or laugh anymore.  When the news about your passing came through to me it took a few seconds for it to really sink in.  Immediately all the memories that we shared came back to me.  I remember your smile and your laugh.  I remember the shy young man I met when you first came to work at Health America and the more confident man you became. I have literally watched you grow up over the years.  Your marriage, your kids, your losses, your challenges and your successes. All of it came flooding back to my memory in what felt like an instant.  I’ve shed so many tears today for you and my heart aches for your wife, Laurie and children.  RIP my friend you will be missed.

Scott when I attended your funeral service I was in awe at the turnout and felt honored to have known you, a man who touched the lives of so many people in such a short period of time.  Everyone loved you differently, but it was all love, nonetheless.  Although we shed tears, and many thought, and some said aloud how tragic it was that your life was cut short, you made a difference.  It was evident to me buy what I observed at your service.  I felt sad that it took your death to make us all realize just how special you were to us all. 

I implore all of you to take a moment after you read this post and think about your life. Are you making every breath and minute count?  Are you being the absolute best you that you can be?  We only get this one brief life to live.   Tell everyone now how you feel about them, what they mean to you.  You might blink and miss the opportunity to do so.  Do everything you can to make it count, make a difference.