I like to write when I’m inspired or moved. It’s both exciting and therapeutic for me.  Today’s originally scheduled topic was bumped because an event moved me to reflection. I guess that means you get to share my thoughts…

On Friday, I found out one of the Senior players on my first high school basketball team I coached back in 2000-01, passed away after a 2-year battle with brain cancer. I had lost track of her over the past decade and didn’t even know she was sick. To say I was stunned and saddened would be an understatement. Her passing is the second from that team, as one of her teammates succumbed to complications from Crohn’s disease in 2003.

As I looked at our team photo that hangs in my man cave, it was tough to swallow knowing that two young ladies at 18 years old, that had a whole life waiting in front of them, were now gone. I know when I was that age, I couldn’t fathom that concept. In reality, at age 49 I’m not sure I still do…until moments like this stop me cold in my tracks.

Here’s your Labor Day message from all of this ~ Life is fragile and not promised. We all just come around this way once. We are afforded opportunities every day that we either accept or reject based on whatever priority is in our heads that day. Those may not always be the best decision-making factors.

If you’ve been putting something off for later because now is not the perfect time, then start it now. There is no perfect time. If you need to tell someone you’re sorry and have been waiting for the right moment, then do it now. If you are stalling on forgiving, creating, becoming, trying, learning, caring, or resurrecting…why not start today? September 2nd is no guarantee. Plan to live forever, but live like there is no tomorrow.

© 2014 Dan Weedin. All Rights Reserved

~ Alan Weiss