In just a matter of moments, everything changed for one of my friends. After coffee, my friend suddenly slumped over the wheel of his truck. Luckily he was not alone and was in the parked position when everything happened. The cause was a stroke. Because he was with friends and close to others, help was not far away, and the effects of the stroke that he had suffered there in his truck were minimized, but not without taking some life.
After not seeing my friends at coffee, I found out he was being treated in a local rehab facility. I decided to go and see him and catch up, making sure he was alright. I sat with him and caught up by his bedside before joining him for dinner and more conversation.
I couldn't help but think and feel the loneliness fall upon us as we sat there. I had questions but didn't want to ask because I already knew the answers somehow.
As I sat there and watched the other patients come in and sit there alone along with my friend, had I not been there, I couldn't help but feel death sitting there in the corner waiting unobstructed by time or any other obstacle. The feeling was cold and lonely, and all I could hear in the back of my mind was the poem written by Dylan Thomas. When I thought of my friend, his life and his accomplishments, and his life now, I began thinking of my own life.
Time is genuinely the only thing I have worth of anything, but when I think of the end of life, what are all the experiences, journeys, and even worth. The quick answer that I give myself is to live an extruding life. To take chances and live my life to its fullest. Time, what is it worth, and how does that translate to my practical sense of being.
I sleep for eight hours, work for eight hours, and am left with eight hours. Sure I give and take here and there with my time, but I give up a quarter of my life to make money and make money for someone else. A friend at breakfast this morning summed up the argument nicely. They don't make money, nor do they get decent benefits, yet her boss made over a million in revenue last month. If I consider the amount of time I give up for that, I should ensure that it's for the right reasons.
When you consider the way things are going in the market right now, the coffee company Starbucks is starting to pay $15.00 an hour, and for personal shoppers in some Walmarts, pay is upwards of $17.00. This pay inequality is causing some people to start to ask about the opportunity costs gained and forfeited seriously.
When I think of the life required to live that dispels the misery that I saw and felt in my heart; I hear you can't just live a life; you have to live an extraordinary life. I think of my heroes and the energy they lived and carried, the meanings that those actions carried, and how they might shape and impact my life. The events over my friend have moved me to reach out and make contact with friends from my past. I intend to reach out to reconnect, but I intend to be a better friend to those I talk to and to nature the friendships that I am forming. I am genuinely interested and vested in their lives and genuinely want to share and be a part of their world as much as I have them a part of mine.
April has been a month where I had planned for change; I didn't expect it to take shape in this form, yet here we are. I intend to put good Karama and magic into the world. I refuse to let the negative influence me and my decisions, nor do I want to let it wash over me and take my dreams, hopes, and aspirations out to sea. The world is already a hostile place and, with it, negative people. I want to live my life like my heroes, and because of that, I start on a hero's journey.
In May, I will reach the halfway point in this period, known as the intermission, and move into a new period of growth, restoration, and prosperity, a renaissance of the mind, spirit, and sense of being.