This time of year I often reflect about life and choices. As some of you know, I originally went to undergrad with the intent of becoming a psychologist. The reason being is that I love analyzing people and their thoughts and behaviors. Well, recently there have been a few events in my life that help me analyze life and what is really important; two of which actually occured today. First, I would like to relive Christmas. The family and I were visiting my mother and step-father, and a lady came to the door holding her insurance card as her hand trembled and apologized because she had backed into our vehicle. This lady had not been in an accident before, and thought that she was going to get yelled at. Well, as you all know, I deal with accidents that involve serious injuries to others, and sometimes death, so I peacefully explained things to her and gave her a hug. A few days later she told the gentleman that inspected her vehicle that she was so pleased because she too is insured with Allstate, and the process was painless (I think she may now be a customer for life). The interesting thing about that day is that it was not too different from many claims that I have dealt with in the past. However, in many instances people chose to get mad at the other person and scream profanities. This is what I find interesting. Now, what does this say about the one who is doing the screaming? Does this mean they value cars over people, or that they are not capable of controling their emotions? I will let you decide. I feel people have choices to make in life and one can either choose to be mad and upset about a meaningless object, or one can see it for what it is, which is just a car, and forget and move on.
Next, today, I got to work and found out that my co-worker's husband was fixing the fireplace on the 30th when he stood up, became dizzy, fell over and struck his head on a slate table. He subsequently went into a coma and later died. Now, this event put my car incident into perspective even more than before. Do you think that my co-worker thought when she woke up on Thursday that it was going to be the last day she saw her husband alive? I, and I am sure you, know she did not expect this, especially considering they had only been married for six months. Do you think she and her deceased husband would have done things differently that day if they would have known this was going to happen? Of course we cannot anticipate fluke accidents like this. However, we can choose how we spend our time and who we spend it with. Think about it next time you are considering watching countless hours of TV, or tending to your yard. Was it worth it?
Lastly, this final event is not so much an event as a moment that triggered a synapse to fire. I was in Riteaid tonight picking up an Rx for Stacy. While I was waiting I perused the aisles, and stumbled upon a lady reading the prices of vitamins. At first I thought she was schizophrenic because it appeared she was carrying on a conversation with herself. Then, I realized she was on her blue-tooth. Anyhow, what struck me is that she was complaining because she had to spend $7 on vitamins. However, minutes later, the same lady purchased a pack of cigarettes for approximately $5. Now, I say to myself, where do her priorities lie, and is she going to regret sacrificing her health for a temporary fix? You could imagine all of the judgmental thoughts that ran through my head.
Anyway, the gist of my post is to remind you to please evaluate your life and determine what is really important to you. If you had to give up your house in exchange for good health for your family, would you do it? Additionally, when you are in your later years of life, are you going to look back and think, boy am I glad I owned that house or car I could not afford, which prevented me from taking vacations with my family? I sure hope you choose the former over the latter. Remember, only you can choose which path to take, so please be cognizant of your decisions because you may not get a second chance to make the correct one.
