Carpe Diem

I was going to write a post about how you never realize how much you need to learn and keep learning, until you start to study something you thought you had an understanding of.  And then a casual friend of mine posted on her facebook wall that her husband had lost his fight with leukemia today.  After a bone marrow transplant, remission and then a relapse, his body finally gave up the fight.  My struggle to learn a new language just seemed insignificant after reading that.  But my initial thought still remains true, just in a different context.  You don't realize how much you need to love and learn and live until you are once again reminded that life is fragile and could be taken from us at any time.  We all say we understand this but it is so hard to remember it in the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives.  And when things like this hit close to home, we all hold those dear to us a bit closer and we spend the next couple of days, or weeks, making "quality" time for all those important to us in our lives...but then we seem to slip back into our mode of work, kids, errands and school (kids or our own) and we start to take things for granted again.  I don't mean to speak for everyone, but mostly for myself.  So, speaking for myself, I hope that this time when I pledge to live my life grandly, and appreciate all I have and not complain about what I wish I had, and when I say that I am going to spend more quality time with my family, that I can keep it up and not slip back into my routine of taking it all for granted.  This is what I hope I have learned today, and I hope to keep learning.  Even though I have always thougth that I had a pretty good understanding on how to live life to the fullest, I know I can do better!