This One Day In October

Today, on this one day in October, not including every other day, of the few people out of the whole world that I keep in contact with, involves this list of personal concerns

 
7^th round of chemo for a young wife and Mother
Pacemaker surgery for a 90 year old Dad

Hernia surgery
Recovery and healing from a wrist surgery, a shoulder surgery, and a gall bladder surgery
MRI
A casted foot awaiting surgery
Dialysis while hoping for a kidney transplant
Medical test diagnosis
College tests
Root canal
Husband and father in harm’s way in Afghanistan
2 Marines, 1 Navy, 2 Army, serving in various positions and world locations
Feverish child
Ended relationship
An older Mother with cancer
Special needs children
Prostate cancer
A full term pregnancy that will not result in a healthy baby and joy filled parents
The unexpected death of a 29 year old

 
…and this, only a partial list. There surely is much more that I am unaware of. Minds filled with worrisome, dread-full thoughts and hearts so broken it is hard to believe they will ever not be, desperate for things to be different, but things are not different.

On this one day in October there is no person anywhere exempt from the reality of a similar list. This is a typical day in the lives of us. Tomorrow’s circumstances may combine with different individuals, but it promises more of the same as today, and all of the previous days for all people, since the beginning of time.  

In the unwittingly prophetic words of Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven, “yes there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run, there’s still time to change the road you’re on”, the implication is that some semblance of control exists. I submit that the only control is in the choosing of the path. One leads to helpless hopelessness as life’s list of trouble’s overwhelms and buries under, even causing some to end what they perceive as too painful to continue. The other leads to selfless hopeful confidence that even with the worst possible most devastating outcome of any and every circumstance and situation, the steps on this path will ultimately take you where you want to go.

There are two paths, only two paths. They each lead to a distinctly different, completely incompatible destination. The journey looks much the same along the way regardless of the path chosen, but the distance between them grows wider, and wider still. The two paths will never intersect or merge into one.

There is this one day in October, the 19^th day of the 2012^th year. Savor trouble free moments. Offer no portion of the day to useless, wasteful, frivolous complaint. Many who inhabit this great globe will not get to even see this day in its entirety, this, their last day. This day is wrought with trouble and difficulty; and while we breathe, time to change the road we’re on.

I write these thoughts with an interruption of news about a crash in front of my workplace. Speed, recklessness, and downed live power lines result in a crash victim whose life just took an unexpected turn, in an instant, perhaps even a permanent one.

Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run, there may not be time to change the road you’re on.

P.J.

“Lord, make me to know my end,
And what is the measure of my days,
That I may know how frail I am.
Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths,
And my age is as nothing before You;
Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor.
 Surely every man walks about like a shadow;
Surely they busy themselves in vain;

Psalm 39:4-6