How Long is a Moment?

It was a sad time on the weekend for my family. Rosey and Jessie have been members of our family for four years.

A gift for my daughter Kasia’s fourth birthday, our two guinea pigs are loved and cherished as cuddly bundles of love and purring. We had a hot weekend – 40° celcius for both Saturday and Sunday. The standard hot weather process is to keep them under shelter and provide a couple of frozen water bottles they can drape themselves over.

Unfortunately, at a point later in the day we checked on them and they were suffering from the heat. They weren’t well at all. Taking them inside and placing them in a little bit of water to bring their body temperature down (as explained by our favorite guinea pig website) we then placed them in the empty bath with the cool ceramic against their little bodies.

Jessie, the younger of the two, picked up relatively quickly and was back up on her feet in half an hour. Unfortunately our golden Rosey didn’t regain energy and slipped to an eternal sleep.

It was at that point that my wife and I looked at each other, and through the sadness had the same thought expressed on our faces… this is not going to be an easy conversation to have with our daughter.

After arriving home from her play date at one of her friend’s place, it was indeed a conversation with tears, the circle of life and discussion about how the passing of your first pet is something that is in your memory for ever. Kasia listened and expressed understanding beyond her 8 years.

My thought underlying this post is how easily the end of a life can happen in the blink of an eye. I have lost friends in car accidents, physical altercations and other events where only minutes prior to the event they were full of life and hope for the future. For most of us most of the time, life is never ending – and the end is so far down the track, we simply don’t give it a thought.

At what point do we all recognize the fragility of our existence. For most of us it takes a major health event for ourselves or a loved one that we actually take action towards our goals whether they be professional, personal or health related. How often have you known someone to make a health decision because they were told it needs to happen “or else”?

At what point do we finally say “No longer am I putting up with this. I take action NOW!“.

At what point do we realize that all we have to work with is this very moment. While you are reading this, you are not achieving anything else. Right now is all we have.

I wish everyone the best of health, but I also wish everyone the best they can be. If you are waiting for something to be right before you go for your goal or dream, don’t… you only have this moment to do anything.

As humans we have shown great ability to overcome adversity, but do not wait. A moment is all it might take.

For this moment, Live Your Ultimate Life.