A horrible tragedy.

I have not been able to come up with an idea for today. I have been consumed with my sadness for a family friend whose son (in my boys’ grade and class) lost his eye in an accident at school earlier this week. Let me say first that this family has beautiful spirit but has been tested these last two years. This last incident would be enough without all of the rest.

I won’t dwell on the accident itself but I want to talk about snaps – those snap events which color or change our lives. These “snaps” come with no apparent rhyme or reason.

It goes without saying (although we all say it as if to remind ourselves) that life is short. Yet, even though it’s gone in a snap, we still seem to think that we’ll live forever. We put off doing things for next year because we all assume we have another year. We don’t tell the ones we love how much we love them NOW because we assume there’s always LATER.

Some of you know that my mom thought she would only live to 59. We thought she was crazy. When she turned 59 she reminded us of this feeling and threw a big party for herself in honor of her and my daughter (they both loved Fred and Ginger movies and that was the theme!).

Four months later, she had a weird physical symptom. Turned out it was two brain tumors and she died six weeks later (when my boys were 6 weeks old) – at 59. I am still heartbroken.

Yet, it is a constant reminder to me that you can’t wait for that snap moment when life changes or is gone. You must enjoy it now. Our little friend is alive and fighting to avoid anything worse than the lost eye. He is a trooper and all of his friends are learning an incredible lesson right now – sadly at the expense of their friend.

So take a moment today to look at your life. What are you putting off? What are you avoiding trying? Go do it! Get on a dating web site if you are single. Tell your spouse/partner how much you value the relationship with all its imperfections. Tell your parents and children how much you love them. Buy those tickets…take that vacation. Love yourself. Don’t let a snap event leave anything behind.

Today is a new day. Enjoy it now!