Remember to not take things for granted, good or bad

The video posted is from a speech I gave to help launch a new event for the Princess Margaret called Disco Days and Boogie Nights. I will be participating, so you will hear more about this event in the future, but what I want to focus on today is appreciating what we have.

As I mentioned in the video, we had a bit of a health scare with Syd the other day. It was a recurrence of what had happened earlier this summer. The difference was that last time I was frantic and worried. This time, I just shrugged it off and took it for granted that she would be okay.

I was thinking about that later and thought it weird that we not only take positive things for granted, but we also take negative things for granted. We become numb to the extremes and accustomed to what is going on in our lives. I don't know if this is how people cope when there are constant issues, or if it is because with each experience our fear is lessened as we do not succumb to whatever the challenge we face. Either way, as I thought about it, I thought about the fact that we should not minimize either the positive or the negative. We should not try to protect ourselves from our feelings, be they good or bad. We need to experience them so that we can truly work through them.

When I did think about what had happened to Syd, I realized that I was still scared and I did cry. I don't want anything bad to her — and while she is fine, and she will be fine, it was still scary. I was insulating myself from that fear and I don't think that really served anybody well, outside of not panicking in the moment.

So, I am taking away from this experience that age-old wisdom not to take things for granted, because then you will miss them when they are gone. However, I am expanding this to negative experiences. They do serve a purpose in our lives — whether to teach us something, to provide us with some wisdom we would not otherwise have, or to show us something about ourselves.

Having said all that, I want to give a shout out to the people from PMHF for their amazing dancing skills — can't wait to see more on Feb 12th. Specific shout out to Sherri, Cindy and Shannon...you ladies rock!