Don’t Live For Tomorrow, Live For Right NOW!
Since a tragic accident left a friend of mine critically injured a few years back, I’ve always tried to live by the whole ‘don’t take life for granted’ mantra. But it’s an easy one to slip in and out of, as the busyness of life gets in the way of treasuring each and every moment, proving it’s hard to remain present.
But something happened on the weekend that jolted me back to reality. My dad suddenly blacked out and fell over, hitting his head on a cement step and ending up looking like he’s gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson. He’s fine, luckily, but as the family gathered around to be by his side at the hospital, we all came to realise just how precious life is. There’s such a fine line between normality and tragedy – step a little too far over to the left and your world comes crashing down. Stay on the right and things carry on as usual.
Now that the shock has settled down and we’re getting used to seeing dad lying in a hospital bed with two black eyes, a swollen forehead and grazes all over his face, the questions and what ifs start crashing their way into our mind. Why did this happen? Did his heart just stop? Is there something going on with his brain? What if he’d fallen and hit the back of his head? The scenario would be so different. Imagine if he was driving. Then what???
But there’s plenty of lemonade to be made from these particular lemons and as a firm believer in everything happening for a reason, we’ve all come to the conclusion that dad was, in fact, incredibly lucky. Despite the odds, nothing was broken (which, if you saw his face, is a miracle), it has allowed the doctors to explore a potential heart irregularity that may not have been picked up had said incident hadn’t happened, and of course, it’s made the entire clan look around at each other and realise that there are only a few simple importances in life. Your family. Your values. Your experiences. So often we are clouded by the things we want that we forget the things we already have.
So if you live your life looking backwards, compare yourself to others, hold onto regrets, or are too scared to step into the life you really want to live, now is the time to consider change. Because there’s no point waiting for tomorrow, there’s no certainty it’s going to come.
Stay Happy,
Yaz
The Happiness Cocktail 
Yaz – this happened to me in July this year. My Dad (who is my favourite man in the world) went in to hospital for a bypass, came out well and then the next day had a major cardiac arrest. His heart stopped beating for over 50 minutes and I was told we had lost him. Thankfully he is one of the toughest and strongest people I know and he fought really hard for the next two days to regain control of his organs. To cut a long story short he is now 98% well (he suffered some short term memory loss) and his cardiologist doesn’t want to see him for another year. All his specialists say he is a miracle!
Since then my life has changed dramatically, I have taken long service leave from my boring public service job and am focusing on being at home with my children and educating people of safe, beneficial skincare and the harm of chemicals, sulphates and parabens for a living. I am loving life to the fullest and try to treasure all the moments of my day (good and bad). It is truly life changing.
Best wishes to you and your family and hoping your Dad has a very speedy recovery xx
Such a good reminder Yaz. Thank you.
And thank you to your dad for providing the lemons for this lemonade. I hope he recovers quickly and all is well.
The same thing happened to me few months ago after my brother ended up in hospital following a car accident that couldv’e been so much worse. The power of now is such a special thing Yaz! So important. Good luck with the recovery x
Thanks for your support, guys. Larissa, that is so scary but it’s so amazing to know he came out the other side. Here’s to never wasting a minute. Yx
” Your family. Your values. Your experiences. So often we are clouded by the things we want that we forget the things we already have.” — this is a very good reminder on how to live a good life. 🙂 Thank you Yaz.
Glad your father is okay. I will probably think the same things had those happened to my dad.