Life is Both Precious and Short...

So Don't Waste It...

  This weekend was sort of bitter sweet for me.  I celebrated the birthday of one close relative and said goodbye to another.  Both events found me looking back over my life, and both events triggered the memory of having to say goodbye to my father.

In the case of my father and I, a very valuable lesson was learned.  I had waited years for my father to change...waited years for him to admit that he could have done things differently.  I wasted years focusing on the fact that I thought he did things wrong...wasted years waiting on him to see things my way.  Before I knew it almost 30 years had gone by.  When I received the call from him, expressing all of those things I had waited for...I almost couldn't believe it.  When he asked me to return home to help him out I quickly responded yes.

Unfortunately just a few days after I returned...he was gone.  As I stood there, next to his bed, as he took his last breath it was as if the realization that the clock had stopped, had suddenly struck me.  There was no more time to share my thoughts with him.  There was no more time to sit and talk with him and share what I learned from him and what things I wished he had done differently.  There was no more time for anything.

At that moment I felt like a fool.  All of those things that I had been holding on to no longer had any importance.  I realized that all those years of waiting on him had been wasted.

I now realize and respect that fact that our time here is short...and it is something that should not be taken lightly.  I really should not put off for tomorrow the things that I can do today, especially those things that involve or affect others.  Even though I hope that myself and the people I love stay around for a long time I must remember that the unexpected sometimes happens.  I must make sure that I deliver my flowers, kind words and good deed to the people in my life now...while I still can because the day will come when I will no longer be able to do so.

Life is both precious and short, this is something that I need to remember...but sadly the truth is...

sometimes I forget