Lessons in mortality...

Maybe it is watching my father-in-law's health continue to deteriorate, after six heart attacks and more health problems than I can list...

And, seeing my mother-in-law fight the doctor who continues to pump him full of so many unnecessary drugs that he sleeps his days away and we lose all signs of the man we knew...

Maybe it was the heart-wrenching email we got tonight from the wife of a former coach of my son's--a plea for prayers for her husband. In the same week he lost his mother after a long battle with cancer, he has learned he has colon cancer himself and will now fight for his own life...all with two small children at home.

Perhaps it was the scary call we got as my 17-year-old nephew was rushed to the hospital Saturday evening after taking a minor hit in a rugby game that no one witnessed, but left him with serious enough concussion that he could not remember one sentence he said from the next or simple things like what year it was. (He's fine now, thankfully.)

I think that with all of these things coming at me in the past week, just maybe, God is trying to send me a life-altering message. It's about my own mortality and how life is so fleeting that I should seize it and not ever take one single blessed day for granted.

For all of these reasons, this week I will:

• Take every one of the damn pills that I hate to take, and be thankful that a pill can help my health issues for once instead of being angry or feeling sorry for myself.
• Walk or do some sort of exercise every day that I can and not make excuses that I'm too busy, too tired, waiting on this headcold to go away...
• Keep driving when I go past my now more than weekly drive through to feed my suddenly new addiction to caramel non-fat sugar-free lattes.
• Ignore the passive aggressive email digs and petty games played by people that I'll no longer work with in just a few short weeks when I resign.
• Give myself a break and quell that inner critic that tells me things I know that are not true--I am not the worst mom ever, I actually can lose the weight, I can make a difference in my life and the lives of others, I really am worth it...
• Hug my kids hard and tell them how wonderful they are as many times as I can in a day and stress less when they get a little rambunctious or smart-mouthed with me.
• Show my husband that I do care more than I usually do and that I appreciate his presence in my life.
• Try to be a good friend to all of those I have in my life, and worry less about that being reciprocated back equally and just enjoy having them around when I do.

And, so, to the "big guy" upstairs? Message received. And, thank you for the gift that is my life.