Sunday, March 30, 2008

An Accounting

I listened to a woman in her late sixties this morning describe a heart attack she had a couple of weeks ago. She was blessed that it was a mild attack and she came out of it okay but it really made her stop and take an accounting of her life. A dear friend of mine experienced a similar heart attack a few weeks ago and she is much too young (3 or 4 years younger than me) to have gone through something like that in her life.

I guess we are never too young to stop and look over our lives and see where we stand--at least where we feel we stand. I was really struck this morning as this good woman spoke, with tears in her eyes and talked of how she really wondered as she was experiencing her heart attack if this was her time to die. And as she wondered this her thoughts turned to whether or not she had done enough good and lived her life well enough. She hoped and prayed she could have more time with her family and more time to be a better person on earth. Her prayers were granted.

It's times and experiences like this that make me take an extra pause in handling my own life decisions and day-to-day choices. I know I will never be perfect or even close--but I try to be a good, caring person every day of my life. I guess my point today is that both of my friend's recent health experiences have made me think about my life and my contributions. And I realize I can and should always do better.

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