Tomorrow isn’t promised
Back in November, Jody posted about a project that Forbes and Yahoo undertook to let you send an email to yourself in the future. As I wrote in a DotMoms post, it immediately set me calculating how old the boys would be at each of the intervals offered — one, five, ten and twenty years from now. It didn’t occur to me at the time that this simple calculation contained an awful lot of blythe assumptions.
Last week I attended a funeral. It was for a twenty-five year old woman, the secretary for my division at work. She was hit by a bus and killed just a few blocks from our office. The minister acknowledged everyone’s sorrow and pain and shock. But then he reminded us "Tomorrow isn’t promised. Today isn’t promised." You never know when you could step off a curb and find that it’s your day.
So I’m making my usual New Year’s Resolutions, and plans and goals for the new year. But I’m also more than usually aware of the possibilities for things to go amiss.
I wish you a happy new year, full of joy and fulfillment. And may you be able to handle the challenges that life throws at you with grace.
January 1st, 2006 at 6:37 pm
It’s a great lesson. Carpe diem. It’s hard to remember – the pressures of today can be so great.
Every year on New Year’s Day, I remind parents to update their wills, if they never created one TO DO IT, and to look at their life-insurance to be sure there is enough.
There have been too many people in my life who didn’t take the time to make plans for their children and make clear their desires in both ethical and standard wills – they took for granted that there would always be tomorrow.
It’s a hard, hard lesson.
January 2nd, 2006 at 3:58 pm
Thank you for that last sentence– I know I’ll need it this year, for sure. Sending it right back atcha too!