Busy, busy.

While taking my walk today, I kept thinking about an incident that took place as we were leaving the Duke Cancer Center last Thursday.  I had just finished my 3rd day of chemotherapy and was looking forward, with much anticipation, to getting home and just relaxing for a few days.  We got on the 4th floor elevator with another couple, and got all the way to the 3rd floor before we stopped and the doors opened.  A woman in a wheel chair, probably about my age, came through the doors being pushed by her husband. The elevator was not overly spacious and conditions started getting a little crowded as we all moved back to make room.  She was obviously in the wheelchair for a reason, and though she did seem a bit weak and feeble in some ways, she was also reasonably alert and aware.  She smiled and make a comment about causing everyone else to have to get all squeezed and crunched.  We all tried to reassure her that it was perfectly all right and not to worry about it.  We made it all the way down to the 2nd floor before it was time to stop again and let her off.  As her husband began to pull her out, I think Holly said something like "...and have a nice day".  As she was backing away she looked up with a big smile on her face and said "I will.  I found out I'm going to live."  And the doors closed shut.

Forgetting her husband, the other four people on that elevator were thinking about other things.  Planning their weekend, trying to remember where they had parked the car, wondering whether they had called someone back.  Based on the way in which that woman said those words, I got the distinct impression that, at some point, there had been some serious doubts raised about her longer term prognosis.  And I sensed that she had just, a short time earlier, learned the results of additional tests that removed those doubts.  She was going to live!!  She didn't care where her husband had parked the car - she was going to live!!  She didn't even care if they had a car - she was going to live!!

All of us have our lives to live.  There are many details that we need to plan for and deal with.  We get busy with our families, and our jobs, and our bad hair days, and sometimes we forget about the simple fact that we have been granted more days in our lives.  There is no guarantee that any of us will see the sun rise tomorrow.  So while it is still necessary to pay attention to the many facets of life that pass us by each day, let us not forget to be thankful for just being alive.  That lady in the elevator is undoubtedly having a simply glorious weekend.  Take a moment to sit back, draw in a deep breath, and just think about it.