An important reminder from today’s false alarm

I tried to reach out to a family member today that is normally very responsive and didn’t hear from them.

Being the worrier / overreactor that I sometimes am, I freaked out and feared the worst.

Thankfully, I eventually heard back. False alarm. My mind was at peace once and all was right with the world once again.

In my reflection on the short period of time when I was panicking and fearing the worst, the fact that we don’t know how much time we get with the people we love really hit me.

I think most people have some awareness of this fact — that’s one thing. But to understand and feel this reality on a visceral level is another thing entirely.

When you internalize just how little time you actually get with the important people in your life, every interaction — even something as simple as a short phone call — becomes sacred.

You hold the moments a little bit more closely and tightly.

Every word exchanged has a little more weight.

Your gratitude for the fact that your existence gets to overlap with theirs is immense.

There is going to come a day where the thing we hope is a false alarm isn’t.

And at that moment, the only thing we can hope to be able to say is that we used our time wisely on the things and people that truly mattered.

We owe it to ourselves and the people around us to be mindful of this.