There are so many cliches out there about getting the most out of your life, but how many of us truly follow any of those quotes? How many of us do stop and smell the roses...pull off to the side of the road during the commute home just to admire the scenery...ignore the "noise" of the screaming kids and just thank God that although they may be loud, they are healthy and happy? I am one that can come up with the quotes, but I must admit that I fall flat on my face when it comes to living out the words.
I've been thinking alot about a heart of gratitude lately, thanks to my brother's girlfriend who has put out a challenge to live 30 Days of Gratitude. I've been faithfully following Vanessa's blog (http://blog.thrive-coaching.com/) and have really enjoyed reading about all she is doing to show gratitude for various things in her life. I will admit, that although I've loved to read about Vanessa's challenge to herself, nothing has been done on my part to show anymore gratitude toward my life than what I already do....that is, until today.
Today I got some news that literally stopped me in my tracks, but first I must digress a bit. A few weeks ago, I started a new job. On my first day at work, my supervisor took me around to every employee and introduced me to each person. We got to one gentleman's office and I was told, "I'll introduce you to him, but he won't be around much longer - he's retiring soon." A week and a half later was his last day at the job he had been going to for the past 40+ years. What amazed me about his retirement was, first and foremost, the amount of time that he worked for the same company. The second thing was how he was working into his retirement. He wasn't going home at 5:00 on his last day and then sleeping in on his first day of freedom. He was leaving the office at 2 pm on his final day, picking up his wife, and heading straight for the airport in Omaha. No, he wasn't headed out on an exotic vacation to celebrate his retirement, he was headed to his new home in Arizona. Yep, he left work, flew to a new time zone, and the next morning when he woke up, he would be in a new home in a new state, and would not have to report to work. Talk about a lot of life changes in a short time period!
Fast forward to today. As I was sitting at my desk this afternoon, an email popped up to all employees. It was entitled "sad news". What I read completely broke my heart. It seems that this dear man that just retired a week earlier went to the doctor earlier today and was told that he had cancer. He had not yet seen an oncologist so there was no news as to how invasive this cancer is or what type of treatment he will have to endure. How unfair is that?! This man puts in over half of his life to his career and within a week of retirement he finds out he has cancer. It just doesn't seem fair.
So, with this news, I have decided that it is time for me to stop just reading Vanessa's blog about gratitude and start living it myself! Life is just too short, my friends, to go through the motions. I look at my children and think of how easily it could all be taken away....I look at my parents and grandparents and realize that our days together are numbered. There is just so much that I take for granted everyday, and I am vowing to notice things more, to enjoy things more, to be grateful for so much more. I will stop and smell the flowers and listen to the crickets on a warm summer night. I will stand outside during the next rain and enjoy how the water cleans up the world, instead of complain that it makes our gravel road muddy. And the biggest lesson that I learned today, is that I am no longer going to wait for "someday", because "someday" may never get here...or when it does get here, there just may not be enough time. I am going to enjoy my life, love my life and get the most of my life that I possibly can...after all, it's the only one I've got!
These are just a few of the things that I plan to do to appreciate all that I have been given....I advise each of you to slow down and really think about all that you have too, because in an instant, life as you know it can change.
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