Grateful For Living

John told me today that he was lucky to be alive. That he savoured each day with gratitude. Some years ago he’d had half his intestine removed. Some kind of rare protein deficiency in his blood I believe.
John has a boathouse next to the one I am working in. This was a fruitful conversation as were accounting for doing things right. We both agreed that taking the time to do a job properly was better then going half ass. In this case we were referring to the job I was working on. It was an old boat. The varnish was badly checked. Instead of patching I’d started from the beginning. Stripped it all down and sanded it clean and smooth.
John left and the words “Life can change in a heartbeat,” echoed in my mind. We all know that.
I immediately thought of the day I had arrived home to a Tsunami warning sign posted on our security gate. As I hadn’t tuned into the radio, this came as a complete surprise. An earthquake in Chile the cause.
This led my thinking to the ash cloud, flooding, forest fires and hurricanes. Yes, life can change in a heartbeat, not only with your health - but with the world we live in. The world as we know it changed forever with 911.
I took a deep breath and carried on. Grateful for the opportunity to live today.