It is tempting to fall into the trap of “someday”, or “when I have enough time”, or “when I have enough money”….I will…..

I worked in high stress and high trauma work for the first ten years of my social work career.  I was at funerals more often than birthday parties.  I witnessed a ten-month-old baby girl, Grace, come into the emergency department of the hospital where I was a social worker, at 8:00 am with a fever and a cough.  I held her in my arms.  Her parents held her, held each other, and at 3:30 pm the same day she died due to meningitis.  Her father had a photo from the day before, with him and Grace playing on the floor in their living room, rolling on the carpet with years of dreams stretched out in front of them. 

I held a mother while a police officer told her that her 18-year-old son ran a stop sign on his way to pick up his girlfriend who was working at Earl’s restaurant.  He was killed instantly, only one block from his family home.  I stood beside this mother while she shook her dead son, as if to wake him.  He looked like he was sleeping on the gurney in the hospital emergency department.  He had been dead for over an hour.

There are moments in our life that teach us that all we truly have is now.  I have been gifted many of these moments.  Ironically, most people spend most of there time looking back or worrying about the future.  This in some way is human nature.  It is challenging for us to truly be here now…standing in gratitude for this life we are living, in all the ways it is being given to us.

In some small way, our well-being is about choosing to live our full potential, to not wait for someday, or until we have this or that…money or time (are the two most common things that hold people back from what they really want).  What if this is it? 

You have all the gifts you need, you are fully supported to live your best life…now what?  Is there anything that you would like to do differently?  Is there some area of your life that longs for attention?  Is there a dream you are needing to step into?  Do you crave something that is not yet here? 

I am asking myself these same questions as I bring this one day to a close.  Nameste.

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