NOW!

Now!  I have recently realized how important “now” is.  Albert Schweitzer was quoted as saying “Truth has no special time of its own.  Its hour is now – always.” 

Truth and now are best friends in my opinion and it was never so poignantly expressed than this past weekend when I had the good fortune to be accepted into a volunteer Hospice training program.  As part of the training, each candidate was required to undergo a 12-hour orientation course and this was eye opening to say the least.  I don’t share this to in any way to make myself “look special” in anyone’s eyes, this was a growth opportunity for me in an area I feel very passionately about.

One of the exercises we were asked to participate in required us to fill in responses in 5 categories.  The categories we had to fill in were to name:

1)   4 people you love

2)  4 values you feel are important

3)  4 of your favorite material possessions

4)  4 body parts you use most

5)  4 experiences you enjoy

Once we had listed these, we were asked to prioritize them.  Then, the coordinator read us a story.  The story revolved around an issue of health that started as an initial diagnosis, we had to listen to the story, and one at a time delete one of the above 20 responses.  We had no idea what the outcome of the story was going to be so we couldn’t rely on that to hedge our choices.

The purpose of this exercise was to help us understand what it is like to “lose” things that are valuable to us without our ability to control the timing because you aren’t necessarily given the luxury of time.  This translates to “NOW.”  This forced me to look at the truth in my life.  When I was down to 2 cards left, I once again had to give up one of them, but this time, the person sitting next to me was the one that picked it sight unseen.  This shows the lack of control associated with illnesses, we don’t pick the illness or when it strikes or the outcome.

Now and truth.  My truth is that I need to appreciate the many blessings I already have in my life and to share them with those I love and the time is now.  There is no guarantee that I will have tomorrow and should I have a tomorrow, there isn’t a guarantee that my life changing moment is not out there waiting for me.  No, don’t live in fear, live instead with a purpose, live with joy in what this one day has to offer.  Live NOW and be honest with yourself about the priorities in your life.  Don’t live according to someone else’s truth, make it a point to find your own and by golly, make it count as positively as you can.  In the end, it isn’t about how much you accumulated; it is about whether or not you did the best that you could with all that you had.  Live and love now!

Looking up!  Barb