What You Miss When It's Gone
What do you appreciate about today? Rarely do we slow down and look for what we can appreciate today. Without taking time to reflect, we don't know what we miss until its gone.
This weekend, a big winter storm rolled over the Pacific NW. Ice and snow; fallen trees and down power lines; sledding kids and sliding cars. All the ingredients for a glorious winter storm.
Unfortunately for us this year, the winter storm did not include electricity in our house. And, you never lose electricity when its a good time. Saturday at 2am: fans shutoff, kids nightlights went out and inevitably, everyone was awake. Didn't help that our house got down to 52 degrees.
There's nothing like losing electricity to make you appreciate it so much. I'm amazed at how often I take the ability to turn on a light, boil water for coffee, or have a hot shower for granted. These are daily activities I give little thought to. After the electricity came back on, hearing our furnace kick on with its lovely warmth pouring out each vent was the best thing that happened that day.
This made me wonder: what in life do I assume will always be true so I never stop to appreciate today?
What about you? If you step back and look at our life, what do you have today that you will miss in the future? If you stop and think about what will be different in the future, do you have people in our life you will miss?
Here are some questions for us to ask ourselves:
- What will be different in my life in 1 or 5 or 10 years?
- With my life being different, what are people or life situations or things I take for granted now but will miss in that future?
- What can I do now to appreciate my present?
Go through this list. Ask yourself these questions. Consider how different your future may be from your present. You may find annoyances today will be what you miss tomorrow.
Decide to appreciate what you have today because you may not know how great it was until its gone.
What do you need to appreciate about today?