POST # 551
Sunrise on Friday May 19th at 5:38 am
In last week's post there was a sunrise photo, and here we go again. What's going on? The answer to that question, is as a result of another question, that I asked myself recently.
Who knows why any question forms in our brain? Almost one week ago, I was minding my own business, staring out the window at my spectacular view, and lo and behold, this thought popped into my head. The thought was as follows.
" If I knew that today was going to be my final 24 hours alive on the planet, how would I choose to spend that time?"
I have no idea as to why this thought came to me just then, because I most certainly wasn't in a dangerous position right at that moment. As far as I could tell at that time, the odds of me still being alive more than 24 hours later would be extremely high. After all, I was sitting in a comfortable chair, I had plenty of food and water, and it was a beautiful sunny day. What could possibly go wrong? On the surface, everything looked about as perfect as one could expect. And yet, there was the thought, rattling around in my brain.
Now, I will admit that on more than one occasion, when I have been in conversation with another person, I have stated that none of us really know when we get up in the morning, whether or not we will be going to bed that same evening. That is a true statement. But for the majority*** of us, the odds are very high that we will survive the day.
I posed this question to Eunice, and this was her reaction. She almost looks like she is taking it seriously, but if you know Eunice, you also know that this is just what she looks like all day, every day. Having been abandoned on the streets of Mexico City, prior to being rescued by her current owner, Eunice has probably experienced plenty of days when it could have very well been her last 24 hours, and yet, here she is safe and sound.
The Thoughtful Wanderer's reaction to this question has been very significant indeed. One big change is that I am spending very little of my 24 hour day in bed. I have been waking up anywhere between 2:30 am and 4 am. That answers the question of the sunrise photos. I have been going to sleep around 10 pm so I've been experiencing some rather lengthy days and yet, I feel very energetic all day long. And I suppose we could all make a list of things we would want to do if we knew we only had 24 hours of life left. I imagine that for many of us, sleep wouldn't make it onto that list.
In any event, it has been a very enjoyable, and rather productive week, and if this has been caused by posing this question to myself, then it has been a very worthwhile question. My gut instinct tells me that this new way of living each day is likely to continue, and if it does, that's a good thing as far as I am concerned.
Shifting gears, I have to mention my most recent trip to the Thrift Store. I went there looking for a particular item, but ended up with a "new" pair of shoes. Even though it wasn't Senior's day (30% discount), I knew that these shoes wouldn't last until this coming Tuesday. But even at their regular price of $29.99, they were still a bargain. They are like brand new, and a perfect fit as well. I'll head back there on Tuesday, to see if the item that I was looking for is still there, and with a bit of luck, I'll be able to purchase it, and get the discount to boot.
New shoes are on the right.
I looked back through my old blog posts in order to find this one from September 14th of last year, which highlights the shoes that I have been wearing up until now. They wore out much faster than I had expected, but the good news is that I must have been doing a decent amount of walking in the past eight months, for them to wear out that fast. Eunice is giving me "the look", which tells me that it's time to strap on the new shoes and head out for a stroll.
Here is one more sunrise, which was from this morning at 5:21 am.
grateful for every breath,
Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer
***
Almost to prove my point, a couple of days ago on our morning walk, there were three City of Nanaimo Parks individuals, collecting garbage from the nearby park. As we were returning home, the workers were returning to their truck to load up the garbage, which happened to include a pillow of all things.
As is my nature, I started up a conversation with them, because of the pillow. They mentioned that they collect all sorts of strange things. Just jokingly I asked, have you picked up any dead bodies lately? Instead of them laughing at the question, right away one guy said yes, three, just yesterday. I thought that he was having me on, but he went on to explain the details of three adults, one a pregnant woman of just twenty-two who had all died of drug overdoses. That story has stuck with me ever since that day, and perhaps it highlights the point I was making in this post.
We must always count our blessings. Every day is very precious indeed.
That’s the BEST pic of Eunice yet!
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