You Choose

Some important things are seldom urgent and some urgent things are seldom important. The trick in this life is to differentiate between the two.



Last Tuesday was like any other, a few tasks around the house and then off to Rotary before heading on to the studio was the plan. But when the regular program lent way for plea to visit a fellow Rotarian facing the end of his life, Steve and I knew today was the day that we must go. This gentlemen, and life long friend expressed concern of why people weren't coming to see him. The real problem was people didn't know the severity of his condition. Most people tend to suffer in silence, and then wonder why no one heard our muffled cries for help. We too suffer from this prideful state when life gets heavy it is on our shoulders we carry it and seldom share the load with others. Steve too, wondered why no one was coming to see him this summer when he was winding down from toxic chemotherapy poisoning too week to do the simplest of tasks, again, no one knew. He is improving slowly but surely but still you wonder how much longer there is. Now the simple test of what is urgent and what is important, sometimes they merge. When one focuses on what is truly important, all else fades into the background. Today I choose to spend with Steve on the couch holding hands and watching a movie, going to breakfast or a bike ride or in the case of last Tuesday visiting a friend- it is these things that are important. While sobering to stand by the failing it is important to reach out for you may be the only one they have. This world and we are diminished by one today for the day after we visited our friend- he passed after 12 years of fighting cancer and its the treatments, while traveling enjoying what life was left with his wife by his side.