Live Each Day As If It Were Your Last

When I woke up this Christmas Eve morning, I shared with my wife that I was going to write a blog post today concerning how quickly time is passing and the need for us to appreciate every holiday that comes along because the truth of the matter is, none of us know when it will be the last time that we will be celebrating any particular holiday. This holds especially true for traditional family holidays such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, New Year's, Fourth of July and of course birthdays. Life is short even if you are blessed enough to live one hundred years, so enjoy as much of it as you can. When I say "last time," I am speaking specifically about death. Even I as the author of the post don't know if tomorrow will be my last Christmas alive or not.

Each Christmas or any of the other days that we pause from our every day mundane routines must be appreciated and celebrated with family and friends as if it were the last time that you or I will have the opportunity to share on that particular day. Truth be told, none of us know if tomorrow (12/25/15) will be our last Christmas or not or if January 1, 2016 will be our last celebration of entering a new year. I don't write this post to be morbid, morose or a "Debbie Downer," but I do write it to challenge us to be more grateful and appreciative of our time spent with our loved ones, may it be family or friends. I don't know about you, but when I hear of someone that I know of passing or transitioning, my mind immediately goes back to the last time I saw him or her and in many instances the last holiday function that we were together.

The time is out for holding grudges, being mean, staying stuck in the past, not speaking to each other, and every other negative action that one could regret when a family member or friend is gone. As I said, I had already intended to write this post today, but what really confirmed it for me was when I ran into an eighth grade classmate in what we both considered an obscure place. It was in a corner supermarket that we happened to run into each other. It just happened so that his son was getting his hair cut in a barber shop in the same little strip mall where the supermarket is located and he had stopped in to pick up something while his son was waiting his turn. My wife and I stopped there to pick up a few last minute Christmas Eve food items and lo and behold as I turned around, my classmate was standing right in front of me.  We both exclaimed, "What are the chances of seeing each other here?," yet obviously they were pretty good because there we stood. We had not seen each other in five years since our thirtieth high school class reunion. We laughed and reminisced and shared with each other just how good it was to be alive and to be able to see each other. We were genuinely happy and grateful to have crossed paths today, in fact, I told my wife that seeing Wayne, made my day.

It also brought me back to my original intent to write this post concerning our appreciating people and life. As each year passes, we are losing more and more of our loved ones and at some point we will be gone too. So I say all of this to say, truly and deeply enjoy this pause over the next week or so with family and friends. If there is someone out there who you are estranged, do everything you can to make amends. Live, Love, Laugh and be appreciative of the lives around you. Your parents, your siblings, your spouses, your cousins, your grandparents, your aunts, your uncles and so on and so on and so on. Show some love this holiday season even to someone who may be angry or holding a grudge against you. It does not cost a thing to be a decent human being.

With all of that said, have a Merry Christmas and if I do not post again before the new year, have a Happy New Year. You are invited to listen to me live each Saturday at 6:00 a.m. as host of The Reading Circle with Marc Medley. The show is web streamed around the world on gobrave.org and heard locally in northern NJ on FM radio WP88.7 FM. You are also invited to follow me on Twitter @thinkcritical01 & @readingcircle01 and to visit my website on www.thereadingcircle01.com. May you live as long as you want and not want as long as you live. Live each day as if it were your last, because one day it will be. Something to critically think about.