The Gift.
I woke up ten minutes before my alarm clock went off. Its big red numbers screamed 3:59 a.m. at me as I just stared at them. I couldn’t go back to sleep. The silence of the morning accompanied me as I picked up my iPad and scanned my Facebook page. A message hit me right between the eyes. It was 4:09 and I found out that Eric Tanner died.
I met Eric through Facebook. He was battling melanoma and knew I had survived the disease. He talked with hope about his latest treatments. He saw the future and it was bright. His attitude and will to live quickly made him one of my cancer heroes.
A few weeks ago, I got a note from his beloved wife Kristi. The beast was winning. That bright future had dimmed into long hours of sleep. She was losing her soulmate. And her words dripped with the pain. It reminded me of the agony my sister went through when her soulmate Adam died last year of ALS. Death came slowly.
But it came.
I sat in the dark and mourned a man I had been praying hard for. Melanoma is a brutal opponent. It is sneaky and yet violent. It shows no mercy. My fears sat on my chest as I knew I could very easily be walking the same journey.
I turned off the iPad, said a prayer for Kristi and laced up my shoes. I struggled this morning during my Paul Lacoste workout. Sweat poured copiously off my body and I gasped for breath. I felt the heat as the sun peeked over the trees. At that moment, I unwrapped my gift. The gift of another sunrise. Another chance. And today, I will live every moment to the fullest in honor of a good man who can’t. That’s my tribute to his memory.
A long time ago, I used to worry that people didn’t live like I do. Now I just want people to live. To pursue their dreams. To use their talents. To find passion and hang on to it for dear life. And to not take a second for granted.
/tears