Second Chances
About fifteen years ago, a friend’s husband went into surgery. After she waited for a while, the surgeon came out to inform her that her husband had passed during the operation and all attempts to revive him were in vain. He was gone. She was, of course, devastated and began the all too familiar course one generally runs when losing someone close and dear to them. However, not long after she told their two children and were trying to decide the next steps, she was informed that she needed to come back to the waiting room. It was there that she was told that her husband, after being dead for 17 minutes, had started living again. The team quickly jumped into action and continued the surgery without any further interruptions. One can only imagine the emotional roller coaster ride this miracle took them on. And while his recovery was slow and he continues to struggle with his health, they have never taken a day with him for granted.
Now, jump ahead to this last New Year’s eve when the two of them were sitting in a restaurant chatting about New Year’s resolutions. My friend, who is an elementary school teacher, talked about how much she worries about, well, everything, and so had decided to make a resolution to stop worrying so much. Her husband listened to her and then matter-of-factually said, “I used to worry about things too, but then I died and now I don’t worry so much.”
Very few of us will ever get a second chance at life. However, every day that we do wake up, we have the ability to decide how we will live the life we do have. If we spend our time worrying, we may not accomplish our goals or even the things we would like to do. We shouldn’t need to come back from the brink of death before we start living. I say, instead of spending our time worrying, we should put our thoughts into action!
So stop putting off learning to play the guitar, taking that art class, or starting that garden. If you’re one of those, and you know who you are, look at the unfinished projects around you, pick one up and start finishing it. Is it easy? Of course not. But nothing worth doing ever is.
If you are one of those who are looking for something new to do, watch the Augusta Locally Grown website (https://www.augustalocallygrown.org/ ) for gardening and other classes that are being planned to start in the coming weeks. We are looking forward to seeing you!