Stop To Smell The Roses

I’m sitting here watching My Sister’s Keeper. It’s a movie about a young girl was genetically engineered to be donate blood and bone marrow to her sister who is dying of cancer. This is my second time watching the movie. It is a must see movie, it makes you think about life. As I sit here and watch, her last wish was to go to the beach. It makes you think about how so many people take the small things in life for granted. Can you imagine being a young girl dying of cancer? There is nothing to look forward to in the future. We take for granted all the small things in life that we do get a chance to do that others don’t. Like walking on the beach and spending time with family and friends. I think I enjoy this movie so much because in February of 2007, I was diagnosed Chronic Lymphocyte Leukemia. I was told, I could have between five to fifteen years to live. It would all depend on how fast the CLL progressed. Overtime the CLL cells replace the normal lymphocyte cells in the marrow and lymph nodes making it difficult for your body to fight off infections. It was a horrifying thought to me. My children were only 6, 7 and 15. The only thing I could think of was there was the possibility I would never get the opportunity to see my children grow up, graduate from high school and from college. I would never get the opportunity to see them get married or even see my grandchildren and watch them grow. That same year in late September, my CLL went into remission. That nightI took my children and a friend out to dinner to celebrate. I let them order whatever they wanted for dinner and order the biggest dessert on the menu. I was given a second chance at life. I have been in remission ever since and I am so grateful for the opportunity to watch my children grow. Everyone should take a moment and think, how they would feel if they didn’t get another chance to spend another day with the ones they love? What would you do if it were your last day on earth? Any one of us could die tomorrow. We could get into an accident, die in a plane crash, have a heart attack, and so on. Do you want to be laying there wishing you had done things differently? We value having a big house, driving a nice car, dressing our best, etc. We go to work every day for all the materialistic items in our lives. How often do we actually sit down and think about the ones we love? How often do we make it important to spend time with the ones we love? When your day does come, do you want to be laying there wishing you spent more time with the ones you love or about that vacation you never took with your children or spouse, thinking about all of your children’s sporting events or recitals you missed? All the time you have lost with your loved ones is gone and they are gone forever. Don’t waste your life on all the superficial things in life. They are what they are, superficial things that have no real meaning. Spend your life on the one’s who mean the most to you.