This is the time of your life. How are you spending it?
Following my little bout with a GI virus this weekend, I mentioned my appreciation of health to a friend.
Did I ever feel small when she replied, “Oh, I know what you mean. My friend called me this morning and asked me to pray for her. All she wants is enough strength to lift her head up off the pillow today to do a load of laundry. She has liver cancer, and she just had another round of chemo.”
All she wants is the strength to do a load of laundry. Quite the lesson in appreciation?
Then last night I gazed at the threatening clouds as we made our way through heavy Chicago traffic with a truck full of uncovered furniture. In my great wisdom, completely forgetting the lesson from hours before, I commented, “Looks like I might be sleeping in a wet bed tonight.”
At that very moment, we rounded the corner, and there in the sweltering heat and humidity lay a homeless man, face down on the ground alongside the major thoroughfare. I turned to my son, our eyes met, and nonverbally we communicated the lesson. After a moment I replied, “OK, I am going to shut my mouth now. I’d be happy to sleep in a wet bed.” He replied, “Exactly.”
No matter how pleasant or difficult the moment, this is your life. How are you spending it? What thoughts do you hold about your current moment? Appreciation and gratitude for what is? Or complaint and despair for what is not?
This is the time of your life. How are you spending it?
