Caveat: This is not a usual LC topic but it is heavy on my mind and important to share.
Yesterday I was at my office here in the country and at one point saw an ambulance go screaming down the road. Very unusual in our little town of 4,000. I said a quick prayer hoping all would be well regarding the situation. I often do this, but never before have I gotten the backstory.
Last night, however, 51% and I were having dinner with three other couples. Our hostess, a good friend and a broker at one of the real estate firms in town, took me aside and wanted to tell me something. Earlier in the day - at the competing real estate firm in town - one of the young agents (who I do not know personally) was in the office with a mutual friend of ours. She began having some type of undefined seizure - our friend called for help and tried to help her, the ambulance came, and rushed her to the hospital (flying past my office). She didn't make it.
Like I said, I didn't know her personally, but in a town like this it doesn't matter. This girl - only about 30 - was taken so quickly. I learned that she had just gotten married in the last couple months, and was planning on moving into a new house soon. All night I kept thinking about it. How one minute one could be thinking about the multitude of things any of us have on our lists (shopping that needs done, tasks that need accomplished, people to call - all the minutia that fills our llives) and how completely irrelevant that can become in an instant.
51% and I have always had a strongly shared philosophy that life is too short and that you have to live each day to the fullest. It is examples like the above that only reinforce it. It is a bit utopian to not recognize that we each have things to do, careers to pursue, etc., but it has to be wrapped in the acknowledgement that each and every day is a gift and we must receive and treat that gift with love and respect.
