racoma.netI love to write. I write to live. I live to love.

Every morning, I take a long piss. And I cherish the feeling of freedom each time. I thank God for it. This may sound silly, but consider the opposite scenario. Not very long ago, even the simple act of urinating had been very, very difficult for me. I’d developed kidney stones and I had to endure the pain of having a hard object blocking the flow. And for this particular stone I had to endure passing out a rough, hard object the size of a grain of uncooked rice with crystalline formations meancingly jutting out. It took an excruciatingly slow week before I could pass that one out.

So now that I’m in a relatively healthy state again, I try to take care of myself better. I try to appreciate the simple things that I know could, again, be lost in a heartbeat.

We often forget to appreciate something until we lose it. It’s a fact of life. We tend to take a lot of things for granted. We take a lot of people for granted. Life is fast-paced after all, and in the buzz and bustle of it all, we tend to get lost and distracted from the simple things that can make us happy.

Sometimes, losing something can make you want it even more, and strive to reach for it once again. You lose your job, and you try to bounce back. You lose money in business, and you try to rebuild and regain what you have lost. You fight with a friend or loved one, and you strive to reconcile and be a better person. Struggles make us better people after all.

But what if that something or someone can never be brought back. Life is but a fleeting moment. I have experienced this firsthand when I lost a child. There are some things you can just never bring back, and going through experiences like these really change you.

Have you been thankful for what you have lately? Have you been appreciative of things? Of people?

Hug your kids. Kiss your spouse. Have a drink with a friend. Wax your car. Take a piss. It only takes a few moments to take stock of what you have, and try to get the best out of it, and of yourself.

image credit: flickr/schmancyfancy