A WAKE-UP CALL

"Knowledge of our own mortality is the greatest gift God ever gives us... It is so easy to exist instead of live. Unless you know there is a clock ticking." - from A Short Guide to a Happy Life, by Anna Quindlen

There is a woman here in town that I have a just-budding friendship with. She is on the board of The Bountiful Sprout with me, and she is the one who finally convinced me to join her yoga class, after 30 years of my just talking about it. I have not yet had the opportunity to spend any one-on-one time with her, though I do get daily updates on Facebook that give me a voyeuristic peek into her life. The last update she posted read "I am colored, waxed and ready to go on my trip! Can I leave now, please?"

We were supposed to be going on a producer-inspection visit together tomorrow, and I was looking forward to that as an opportunity to get to know her a bit better. This morning, as soon as I turned the computer on, I saw that there was a message waiting from her. However, instead of finding details of where and when we were to meet up, she told me that her parents and brother had been involved in an horrific accident out on Fischer Store Rd. Her father did not survive, her brother is touch and go, and her mother has broken hip, pelvis and ribs.

This woman's entire world has just been turned upside down, leaving her completely numb and in desperate need of our prayers. A terrible, tragic reminder to us all that life is uncertain, and we need to make the most of every single glorious day that we are gifted with. Please keep that in mind as you go about your day today. Slow down and pay attention in each and every thing you do. Breathe in the fragrance of your life, bask in its warmth, thrill to its colors, delight in its laughter and music. Soak in every moment as if this might be your last opportunity to do so, because, well, you just never know...