Let me tell you a true story.
A middle-aged man was standing in one of my examination rooms early one morning. He was smiling broadly, which was something of a miracle as I had never known this man to smile. He looked happy, which seemed even more miraculous. Stranger still, he made me feel at peace, when just moments earlier I had felt harried and stressed.The miracle was not in his smile, his happiness, or in how he made me feel. The miracle was that just a few days earlier he was dead.Alex was a professional man whose schedule and responsibilities mirrored his success. For many weeks he had been experiencing strange sensations in his chest. It wasn't pain, so it did not concern him. Convinced that the sensations were from gastric reflux, he carried a roll of antacids with him wherever he went.One morning, Alex felt the now familiar sensation while sitting in a meeting. It was no different than the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of episodes that had come before, but this time, he got up from his meeting and drove himself across town to the hospital. Standing before the registration clerk of the emergency room, Alex pointed to his chest and told her that he thought something was wrong with his heart. In that instant, he collapsed across her desk, and died.His smile took the chill from the coolness of the examination room. I tingled with excitement, wondering what mysteries he could speak of. He turned to me and said, "Dying was the best thing that ever happened to me."
I wish it was me instead...
There are moments in life powerful enough to change us instantly and forever. Far too often, though, these special moments come when we are not present to notice, lost in the dramas of yesterday or our plans for tomorrow. Perhaps wisdom is living the richness that each day offers, being present to recognize those moments with the power to transform us, and seizing them before they can slip away into the currents of time. ..
