The oddest of things, happen to each of us, and sometimes we don’t even see it, recognize it, or acknowledge it.
We miss it.
My friend called about a year ago, to tell me that his young son had ALS/Lou Gehrig’s disease. The boy had numbness in his thumb, and within a week he was diagnosed with a near certain death sentence.
I followed up to inquire, many times in the past year – but never REALLY CONNECTED with him.....never more than a 5-10 minute check in.
Two weeks ago I did connect with him, and it appears – not many friends are REALLY CONNECTING with him -- and leaning in to find out how he is doing --- to engage with him, express interest -- few friends are leaning into hearing, and listening to what he is going through.
The pain in hearing him tell me that few people are leaning into what he is experiencing and going through, was a dagger to my heart.
It hurt me to hear his voice, and it hurt me more to know I may have let him down. I was too busy with my life, to dive into his.
The boy has lost feelings in both arms, he now needs a wheelchair to get around. During the last Yankee homestand, Mark Texeria invited the boy as his guest to tour Yankee Stadium, sit in the dugout, and meet the Yankees before the game.
It was the young man's dream come true. Hearing his father tell me the story might have been the proudest moment of his life --- that he was able to help his son feel great “Spiritually”, for at least a few hours.
To hear this story, is mindblowing. The world stops dead in its tracks -- and it renders all of my problems to be insignificant. It makes my issues, trivial in comparision.
Last week, I reached out to a person that I needed to mend a fence with. He replied, “now isn’t the right time.” I’m OK, with that.
Last week, I called a soldier to thank him for his years of service, and he cried on the phone as I spoke about how much his dedication, loyalty, and compassion mean to me, and our country. I'm OK with that.
Being a better person to those around us, often involves – time and energy, two things that are in short supply.
Sadly, sometimes it takes a health problem to bring us back to reality – and focus on what we should be doing, in order to -- actually be better people than we are, to those around us.
That’s a shame. I hope that it isn’t that way for my children – as I try to set an example – whether its calling the soldier in their presence, or reaching out to an old friend who I lost contact with.
Time is a stripper, doing it just for you.
It strips away everything in the end -- time, and health are our most valuable of possessions.
Don't let a tragedy push you to be the person you should be. I made, and continue to make this mistake......
I'm trying now to fix it, but a friends tragedy, just shocked me into doing what I should have been doing all along.
Oddly -- I recognize, and acknowledge it.
