An Inspirational Story By Byron Pulsifer, ® 2011
It isn’t everyday that I go to the hospital, but there are times when I want to and not have to. One of these days came recently when we received a call from our son who proudly announced that a new baby girl had been born into the world.
It wasn’t that we weren’t expecting the call either because we were baby-sitting our first grandson while his parents where otherwise engaged in a miracle of life. We soon had our little grandson bundled up for our winter drive to the city hospital.
After we arrived at the hospital, we waited in the lobby for our son to meet us so he could take his little son to see his new sister. He wanted a little time to be alone with his family and we certainly understood. In a short time, we received a cell call asking us to come up to their room. Of course, with a bounce in our step off we went and arrived to meet our new granddaughter. How cute she was, all wrapped in her little blanket being cuddled and asleep in her mother’s arms.
As the moment of excitement died down and Catherine was holding our granddaughter, I had time to relax. I turned to look out the hospital window at the blazing sun and pretty blue sky marveling at such a glorious day. It is obviously a pleasure to be close to new birth and in a hospital for pleasant reasons.
As I stared out the window, for some reason another not so happy hospital visit came to mind. I recalled one other time I was staring out the window of a hospital room, a room where my mother laid quietly asleep, or more like unconscious from drugs, waiting for her last moments on earth.
Each of us will face this window when we are waiting for our last breath to be taken as we pass on. But, rather than be sad, wouldn’t it be a lot better to face our own death knowing that our life had been lived to the fullest and without regret? Even though we may not want to face death, it is inevitable just as it is for the setting sun each evening.
I believe we should all live life to the fullest without regret. So, what regrets could you have in your life? There are regrets that you never started or finished that pet project that would have made a difference in other people’s lives; there is that business that you never took the risk to get it going even though you thought about it throughout your working life; there are those regrets that you never spent enough time with your children always too busy to give them more than just a few hours of attention a week or only during a one-week family vacation a year; there are those regrets that you did complete your studies that could have given you the career you always wanted; and there are those regrets that you never told your closest friends how much you valued them.
We all need to stand at a window from time to time to reflect on our lives and what we are doing or not doing; what we could do but are too afraid to do or too caught up in our own comfort zone to push just a little harder to move through these limitations. The window to life is there for you to gaze through to imagine how you would want your life to end up as you might stand at years later. As you gaze out that window of life do not allow yourself to make the mistake of not doing all of those things you dreamed about, or to help those who desperately needed your help but you were too wrapped up in your own needs and wants. Vividly paint the picture you want to see looking back at you through that window and do it now.