Lou Gehrig's Disease and Living

News of an illness is difficult to hear. News of a loved one's illness is crushing. When the illness is fatal with no known cure, the news is devastating. Today, my dad called to let me know my cousin has Lou Gehrig's disease. I am in the process of digesting this information. Yet as I chew on my cousin's diagnosis, I realize how temporary life is and how much it should be valued.

Like so many people, I live my life thinking that there will always be a tomorrow. There will always be another chance. But then I hear a story of a tragic death or of a dreaded diagnosis and I am stopped in my tracks. For that person, there will be no more tomorrows or their tomorrows will be limited. And I hope that their last days have been or are filled with love, serenity and fulfillment. Yet, I do not know when my last day might come. So I should try to fill my days the same way just in case.

This is easy for me to remember right now as I grieve for my cousin. It won't be as easy next week when I have begun to move on. Eventually, I will go back to my ways and forget this lesson until the next piece of bad news. But for a moment, I have paused and listened to the message. I feel badly that it is my cousin's life that has forced me to remember my priorities; maybe, because of that, this time the lesson will sink in a little deeper.