{"id":2867,"date":"2014-10-26T12:11:46","date_gmt":"2014-10-26T17:11:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ewgreenlee.wordpress.com\/?p=2867"},"modified":"2014-10-26T12:11:46","modified_gmt":"2014-10-26T17:11:46","slug":"fleeting-moments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allivarcreative.com\/?p=2867","title":{"rendered":"Fleeting Moments"},"content":{"rendered":"

I read a blog today of a lady’s unexpected health problem and the fear she is now experiencing.\u00a0 I understand completely her fears, not knowing the answer is the most difficult part.\u00a0 One can deal with a diagnosis, good or bad, we can move on,\u00a0make plans and get busy living with the time we have left.\u00a0 In 2008, I came down with the flu really bad.\u00a0 So bad I developed vertigo.\u00a0 I was so dizzy I couldn’t stand, I couldn’t see, and I couldn’t type.\u00a0 The latter issue being the worst because it was smack dab in the beginning of tax season.\u00a0 My livelihood depended upon being able to crunch numbers and place them in tax software.\u00a0 When the vertigo didn’t cease I had to go through all the tests including a CT scan to determine the presence of tumors.\u00a0 This is when mortal fear sets in and you realize you just might be seeing your life flash before you.\u00a0 Luckily for me, after a few more tests, it was determined a nerve from my ear to my brain was irreparably damaged and the only course of action was to retrain my brain with exercises for the eyes to takeover the equilibrium mechanism. After 8 months of therapy, my equilibrium was restored.\u00a0 I’m one of the lucky ones, or maybe my prayers were answered, just not in the time I expected them to be. I believe in the power of prayer, I’ve seen its power for others and for myself, more than once.<\/p>\n

One of my clients, an orthopedic surgeon in the same town, had a similar issue but it attacked his central nervous system and he lost the majority of his motor functions.\u00a0 He lost\u00a0his ability to work and was burdened by a daily\u00a0expensive cocktail of drugs to make life bearable.<\/p>\n

It was about that time that the economy took another dive.\u00a0 This being the\u00a0fourth one in my adult life.\u00a0 It is moments such as these that you reconsider life as you know it.\u00a0 Those things we’ve chased only to be outrun, or run over by them.\u00a0 Time is all I have and its quantity is unknown.\u00a0 When desires and people waste that time, it takes your mind to a new realm.\u00a0 A realm where life is not taken for granted, and that money and social acceptance are unworthy goals.\u00a0 This year my wife and I went to Hawaii, the island of Kauai.\u00a0 For those of you who are spiritual, a visit to Hawaii is a blessing to all your senses.<\/p>\n

We took a drive to Kalalau lookout.\u00a0 That day the\u00a0Pacific and the sky were one color,\u00a0as though eternity stood before me.\u00a0 I felt as though I was in the presence of\u00a0God.\u00a0 It was at that moment all my anxieties of the future were released.<\/p>\n

\"KalalauLookOut1-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On our last day of discovery we took a dinner cruise where we stood at sea level looking back up 4,000 feet at the point I described above.\u00a0 There I had the same reaction – blissfully awed and at peace, with the sound of rushing water providing a calming rhythm.\u00a0 I was brought back to a time 34 years ago when I climbed the 8,000 foot summit of Guadalupe Peak in Texas, where I sat down alone and viewed west Texas and Mexico to the south, with only the sound of wind and the sights of earth and sky as my companion.\u00a0 I also recall that same peace, only to forget it later from\u00a0the demands of family and career over the next three decades.\u00a0 How did it go by so quickly?<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1498\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So what is my point?\u00a0 We search our entire lives for seemingly unattainable goals.\u00a0 You reach a salary point, and then you want more. Then in the flash of a second you can be forced into a sober analysis of the path you were taking.\u00a0 You step back and look at all the trinkets you’ve obtained made from the resources of this remarkable planet, realizing none of it truly was what you wanted, but thought were supposed to have. We plunge ourselves into ultimate driving machines with ultimate debt, and even reconstruct our own\u00a0bodies\u00a0to cheat mortality.\u00a0 But as it has been said wisely, “He who dies with the most toys, is still dead<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

My health issue was\u00a0a moment of rebirth, the\u00a0answer that all my 2-year and 5-year plans were absolutely absurd.\u00a0So I am selling everything I own and looking to live the remaining years more on the minimalist side,\u00a0down-sizing to what a man and wife really need –\u00a0basic shelter and the environment to rejuvenate our\u00a0body and soul.\u00a0 For me it is not about the quantity of my life, but the quality.\u00a0 When I stood at the Kalalau lookout, I was at peace with myself and if God truly wanted to take me, I was ready.\u00a0 We live in an age where belief in the unseen is mocked.\u00a0\u00a0 My trials and tribulations have only made my faith stronger and I am unashamed of admitting it.\u00a0 It lead me to write my mythological trilogy and the upcoming series to complete my mythology of good and evil,\u00a0faith, and the simple things of life we take for granted, such as the sounds and sights of creation, and the peace\u00a0\u00a0a moment spent alone in that surrounding can bring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I read a blog today of a lady’s unexpected health problem and the fear she is now experiencing.\u00a0 I understand completely her fears, not knowing the answer is the most difficult part.\u00a0 One can deal with a diagnosis, good or bad, we can move on,\u00a0make plans and get busy living with the time we have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[185,323,340,444,540,599,665,709,713,755,888,893,956],"class_list":{"0":"post-2867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"tag-blessings","8":"tag-creation","9":"tag-death","10":"tag-faith","11":"tag-god","12":"tag-hawaii","13":"tag-illness","14":"tag-kalalau-lookout","15":"tag-kauai","16":"tag-life","17":"tag-napali-coast","18":"tag-nature","19":"tag-peace","20":"czr-hentry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allivarcreative.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allivarcreative.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allivarcreative.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allivarcreative.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allivarcreative.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/allivarcreative.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2867\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allivarcreative.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allivarcreative.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allivarcreative.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}