I remember like it was yesterday. I was not feeling well. Not overly sick but just feeling not quite right and my Doctor sent me for an echo just to be on the safe side. I left my house at 8:00am and was running late, which is the story of my life. I’m pretty sure I did not make my bed, there were dishes in the sink and I had just put on a load of laundry. I emailed my work that I would be at work around 10:00am right after my test. After taking my test they asked me to wait for the cardiologist, something I found odd as normally they say get dressed and your Doctor will call you for your results.
In a “heartbeat” my life changed.
The Cardiologist came in and told me I could not leave the hospital. I had an infection in my heart and in the words of the Cardiologist “It was life or death.” I literally fell apart and I kept saying I could not stay as a slew of infections disease Doctors bombarded me asking me all kinds of questions. This led to yet another open heart surgery and a little over a month’s stint at Mass General. I was totally unprepared. In a moment, everything had changed.
Ask anyone that has been through any crises or a tragic loss, your life can literally change in an instant. The phone rings and you are never the same. No warning at all.
My daughters make fun of me. I am constantly preaching how precious every day is. How blessed we are for the day we have. I’m not overly optimistic or seeing life through rose colored glasses, but when you have gone through any kind of crisis it truly puts your life into perspective. Life is tough, things fall apart, things go wrong but no matter what goes on, we have the day. We have the gift of the next 24 hours.
I remember Oprah did an article following the death of JFK Jr about how every moment is a gift. She talked about how when they went to his apartment following his death his calendar was sitting on his desk. Appointments and things to do that would never be done. Literally, life is taken away too young and too soon.
None of us can possibly know what tomorrow will bring. All we have is today. We have all heard the quote by Eleanor Roosevelt, “Tomorrow is a mystery. And today? Today is a gift. That’s why we call it the present.” No truer words have been spoken.
It has been an extremely rough couple of years. Our lives have forever been changed. If someone told me that a global health crisis would shut down the world, I would’ve laughed. Never in a million years did I ever think that we would be quarantined at home hoarding toilet paper and cleaning supplies. Never would I think that over close to one million Americans would die of covid, truly unthinkable. As life returns to some semblance of normal, some aspects of our lives are forever changed. Families are forever changed.
So if you are blessed to arise in the morning, remember what a privilege it is to be alive. Count your blessings, try not to complain, and do what you can for someone else. Enjoy the life given to you – just for today!
Accidental Harmony 