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It's a melancholy day today. I got up to find police cars at my neighbor's house....apparently the ambulance had already left. My health-compromised neighbor died this morning.
There are so many thoughts that go through one's head at times like these. Although I didn't know the family well, I've journaled about some of the encounters I had with them. But I think what's at the core of all my thoughts today are how similar they are with what my own parents went through several years back. Of course, I've gone over all that history in my head while walking today. I'm also thinking about the temporary nature of life. For my neighbor, one moment he was alive, the next, not so. And it's that way for everyone. In a heartbeat, quite literally, his wife's future also changed to a path I'm sure she'd rather not walk.
And yet, while life in that house seems to have stopped, suspended, if you will, the rest of the world goes on, oblivious to the magnitude of that event. I watched as a young mother rode by with her toddler son in a back seat on the bike. She glanced over at the parked hearse in the driveway. I wondered if she gave it any thought. Did she say a brief prayer? Did she marvel at the wonder of life in her son? Did she wonder about her own mortality and how it might impact her family? Who knows.
As I walked around the neighborhood, I saw teens, now out of school, mowing lawn. FedEx was driving around making their guaranteed-AM deliveries. Cars, vans, and trucks rolled on by, all on their way to their usual activities. A few people, like me, were out walking; most of us oblivious to the progression of life as it marches on through our own little worlds.
What has this to do with a WOE site?
So many times, even now, I put off making the right choices I know I need to make....I'll do it tomorrow....an extra day won't hurt....I'll get to it eventually. I do that with other areas of my life, as well. My neighbor's death is another reminder that today....this very moment.....counts. We are not guaranteed another. Make the right choices now.
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