At times of crisis

Day 915 - A very close friend of mine is suddenly facing serious health issues. After a slow deterioration of his eye sight in one eye, that his doctor told him is due to a developing cataract he suddenly was not able to see at all in that eye; scary as all hell, for sure. The verdict of his doctor, which he received today is that he has a very serious retina detachment and an operation is a must in an attempt to save his eye sight. I talked to him today and I did a lot of reading about it today and it made me very sad. It is not clear how much they will be able to restore his eye sight, and for sure it's a very long recovery even in the best case. It is really scary how from one minute to the next life can take a complete detour. Things that looked so important only few days before are loosing it and others are climbing up the ladder. If I can see that, being on the sideline, I can only guess how ground shaking it is for him. His hobbies are all about action and speed and at best it will be months before he can do them again and he might have to give them up, he won't be able to fly for months and he is one of those who belong to the million mile club, so he spends half of his days at 30,000 feet. But maybe we can also look at the bright side - when you loose something you gain something else in return. We just have to believe that and find what is it. It's easier to look outwards instead of inside, but there is a lesson here for me as well. The fact that I feel all strong and able doesn't mean I cannot loose it all in one moment; it can be an accident, health crisis or anything else and my clock is ticking, my life is racing towards old age, poorer health and death. I better enjoy every day I have because who knows what tomorrow has for me. I prefer regretting doing too much than doing too little. I prefer standing at the end of my life, or on the verge of life altering event and thinking " I am sad it's over but OMG what a wonderful ride it was". So realizing I am not immortal, that I am a very frail human being I should start thinking about my last days and what I want to do with them. So many times I talked in this blog about being thankful for the things we take for granted; I never even once thought of thanking my ability to see or to hear or to walk or to think, or speak or being pain free. Sometimes you need a crisis in order to realize how important are those things we take for granted; how much we would love to give up so many of the things that occupied our days before just to have one more moment of the simple joys. How sad we almost always see it when it's too late... 
  
I am thankful I got to talk to my friend today and wish him good luck in this coming operation; I really wish him full and speedy recovery. I am thankful for my good health at the moment, for every day I get to walk this land and enjoy it with all my senses, with all my might. I am thankful for everything I have, for everything I don't have. I am thankful for my life just the way they are.