Skip to main content

Right here. Right Now...

 



Right here. Right now.

In my office nearly two decades ago, a blue-collar man and I were speaking about gratefulness. He stated, “Many times I think about how amazing it is that I landed in the time period and the place where I am now.” He continued, “Like we could’ve been born in a different country. We could’ve been born in Europe during World War II. But for some reason we landed in New Jersey. Born after that war. Now that’s lucky.”

I concurred. “I think about that a lot. Like what are the chances that you and I weren’t born in Haiti, in the 1950’s?  We could’ve landed anywhere, anytime, any place. We could’ve been poorer. We could’ve been the wrong religion for the time period. Anything, could’ve been. Right?”

He acquiesced, “Yeah. It all still fascinates me.”

As this conversation had taken place all those years ago, I still think like this every day of my life. It brings me to a point, where I know that I must acknowledge what I have. What possibilities there are in the next few seconds, minutes, hours, perhaps days that someone else in the world is born. Right here. Right now, in what some of us would consider the wrong time, the wrong place, even what some of us would consider being born an unpopular nationality, religion, and so forth.

I ask myself, nearly everyday, ‘What are the chances? What are the chances we are born in that perfect place and time? Is it that, for some Divine intention that we are planted, whether by deep intimate spiritual prior request? Or perhaps by a journey intended to cleanse the world?’  Or, as I’ve had thoughts many times, ‘Why do I feel the way I feel, and react with compassion and deep-caring, when others don’t? Is it that, they have disregarded anyone else’s existence as important, other than their own?’ Or is it just the way humans have not evolved, when I sense we should have. Not just as a collective. Yet, individually, without fear.

I know we are all given gifts. Trust me, we all receive them. Are we acknowledging them? And if we aren’t, what happens then? My thinking is, that those gifts are lost. They are stolen from the world. I think that there is a heavy price to pay from each one of us, if we throw away those gifts we are afraid to share.---Jody-Lynn Reicher

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Completion of Humanness

Completion of Humanness As we arrive to the completion of the first year without Norman, I had decided long before he'd passed that I would continue to do things certain things he liked yet could no longer do. I decided I would not take a day off of fitness.  I would run at least for 500 days in a row. I began that in early 2020.  I'd not be concerned with the distance I'd run. It was the very thing I convinced Norman and the thing that mattered to him, from the very first discussion we had August 11th, 1981, was fitness. I loved that he was a College Boy. He loved that I was a Marine. We tickled each other's soul with such admirations. Later fitness continued as an old discussion from 1994 ...getting outside and to run no matter what. I would say to him, "Run 200 meters, then 400 meters. If it doesn't feel good, stop. Turn around and walk back home and know you did your best. That is all you can ask of yourself." I said this,  knowing he would get dow

In My World

As I finish putting away the week's groceries, I contemplate other's lives. Aside from my two daughters,  I consider what may be other's lives.  How they have conducted their lives over the past two years.  This is a thought not unusual for me to have. Yet, it occurs more often than not. Especially  now, as the population is probably feeling ever more irked. Regarding perhaps. their illusion of any lack of their freedom. But isn't that what life is about? The illusion of who we are. What we are about. Where we stand on the planet. Who we love. And who loves us. Our significance. Couldn't we imagine if this were all just an illusion? Sounds like a "Twighlight Zone" episode, perhaps. My aim here, are the thoughts of reckoning. I'll explain why I'm claiming such a thing. For about twenty-eight years of a career in dealing with injured athletes,  pain patients, chronically ill and the terminally ill. I found that there were many people who lied to

Christmas is Full of ...

  Christmas is full of wishes, hopes, dreams and perhaps joys. Things we desire and things we need. Everyday I awaken, I know I have more now than I had as a child—by far. We have two refrigerators, air-conditioning, nice heating system, colored television, three landlines to phones, relatively new cars that we paid in full upon purchase.   Yes, no debt outside the monthly, quarterly, semi-annual and annual bills to pay. I can drive to the food store. Our daughters have never or rarely ever; I can count on one hand that they had to get something for the house because I’d forgotten an item or couldn’t afford it on my weekly shopping list. We have three pets. Our daughters have and will have an incredible education—the choice of being studious is up to them.   We have a double oven. We have an attic and a basement. Our daughters work, not because they have to right now, but because they want to. We parents have had our own bedroom. We have two bathrooms. We have a washer and a dryer.