One Day

One day. That's all it can take to change your life forever. One phone call. One test. One appointment. One birth. One death. One "I love you." So many moments that can change the course of our lives occur that quickly.

We often tend to think of individual days as throw aways. I'll get to it tomorrow, we say. Next week. Next year. But what if tomorrow, next week or next year were going to look completely different than today?

I remember the day I got the call--at work--telling me I had MS. 10 years later, I could tell you every detail of the call, every emotion, everything. In that one phone call, my life changed. I was not the same person I was 5 minutes before the phone rang. It happened that quick and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

I'm thinking about that today because tomorrow is the start of another school year for my kids, and I'm at work. All the other moms, it seems, have taken the day to celebrate the end of summer with their kids. I chose to come to work. I had deadlines to meet, projects due, meetings to attend. But the problem is, when I look back I'll realize that none of that mattered.

I should have been home...with my kids...hosting a full-on closing ceremonies for summer break. How many times have I pushed off that one day? That day that could have created the best memory of our lives? No, I made a huge mistake today--and so many other days. When will I learn the importance of just one day?