Life can change in a millisecond

I’m not an eloquent writer. Thoughts in my head don’t quite transfer well into writing, but it’s theraputic so that’s what I do, so bear with me on this one.

Sometimes it doesn’t matter how much you try to live a thankful, humble, happy life crappy things still happen. No surprise there, but when they happen, you don’t even know how to react. I will never be able to wrap my brain around how fast life can change within seconds. Literally.

A couple weeks ago my aunt fell and hit her head. It hurt but otherwise she seemed okay. A few days later she was rushed to the ER. Turns out a blood clot developed and she had emergency brain surgery.

Pa called with the bad news while Mike & I were enjoying a sunny Saturday afternoon wandering around Pottery Barn talking about our dream home.

This is the part where I want to delete this post, have a glass of wine and go to bed (I wrote this last night) because I really suck at the whole feelings thing. But what would the point be in me sitting here for the last 32 minutes writing all of this? So….

Surgery went very well, in fact she was talking and eating within a few days. She was even walking around the hospital when ma called with an update several days later. Doctors were very pleased with her progress and released her earlier than anticipated. I believe it was on a Friday.

Over that weekend she had a seizure and was rushed back to the ER. Long story short, she had a second emergency brain surgery. By the grace of God, it went well. She is now recovering at home and I believe she is recovering with some limitations.

As I sit here, I realize that life is extremely fragile. We say we will complete that goal later, I will visit that place someday, later later later……

One of the myriad of reasons I love my job is because I get to see folks at their happiest, often times living their life long dream of playing Pebble.

I remember a nice older man, with his wife. After playing 6, as he got into the golf cart headed to 7 tee, I overheard him say to his wife I’ve waited my whole life to play this hole, and I get to do that right now!

You see, the 7th is the signature hole at Pebble. In his mind, this was his goal, and I knew how jazzed he was to finally play it. I asked for his phone to snap a couple pictures of him living the life long dream. That smile was well worth the 30 seconds of my time. I felt excited for him!

Another of my most memorable moments were 3 middle aged brothers with their father. As I was mixing up drinks they told me all 4 of them were from all over the US. They actually planned this trip for last year, but pops had a heart issue, and there were a couple time they weren’t sure if he would pull through. So they had to postpone their dream vacation a year.

They were having the time of their lives. Pops had a big smile on his face and all those health issues were gone. He was with his boys, playing Pebble and that’s all that mattered. I asked if I could take a picture of them and they all whipped out phones with genuine, gigantic smiles.

Sheer joy I tell ya.

I share this because sometimes we need to be reminded how fragile life is and how things can be completely different in a millisecond.

Enjoy every second you have. Take what you are given. Choose happiness. Choose joy. Live with passion. If you’re not happy, maybe it’s time to make some changes. Never give up. I know my aunt isn’t.