Priorities

In the last two weeks, two people that I know have discovered they have an orange-sized tumor in their brains.  To say I am in shock is such an understatement.  It has been hard to wrap my head around the idea that in the space of 24 hours, their lives have changed forever.  One of these people is the 26-year-old husband of my niece and one is a co-worker who just retired this spring.  Both had surgery the day after they found out and both will be facing chemo and radiation to try and kill off the portion of the tumor the surgeons couldn't remove.  As my daughter says, "This is so scary."  It makes you want to go in and have tests to make sure you're not a ticking time bomb.  It also makes you just want to hug the people who are dear to you while you can.  It's such a graphic reminder that life is precious and unpredictable and you need to spend it intentionally, not just drifting through.

Of course, this is hitting harder because I've already lost two people this year:  my mom and our friend, Bruce.  I know I've mentioned living intentionally before, and how going through my mother's things has triggered the desire to sort out my own, but these last two events this past  couple weeks have reinforced the idea that you need to spend time with the ones you love and whatever time you can't spend with them, spend productively on things you want to do.