This story does not have a glorious start. For the past few weeks, I’ve been immersed in researching and finding subsidized hearing aids for one of my grandmothers. Shocked by a store doctor that recommended a device for 1800, I was eager to find more. It all started from seeing my grandma sinking in depression from not being able to hear, understand and communicate with the world around us. A deeper research led me to discover a medical clinic that suggested a treatment for unplugging versus expensive devices, so she’s on her way.
Beyond the frustration for the store doctor for not doing the proper diagnose, and making a commercial one, I was struck by the care from the medical personnel in understanding just how important her ability to interact and participate in our lives was. Two continents to the left, my other grandma is battling the medical system to get a surgery for liquid in her leg, and finds the doctor telling her “what’s the point, it’ll gather liquid again anyway, at your age…”. How can you possibly feel when someone tells you “at your age…”? What are you supposed to do, stay inside and wait for death? How can a person decide which moment is more important than the other? It’s like deciding which heart deserves to be loved or not… all life is important, in every moment.
Take a look at your life, at the people inside it. Their lives, today matter, no matter how mundane it may seem to you. The breakfast you serve your kid today is not just another breakfast, is the most important of their life. The presentation your loved one is giving before lunch today is not just some other work stuff, is maybe the moment that gives them self-confidence, or a promotion, or that brings them face to face with a boss they can’t stand. The visit you pay to a senior is not just a routine you get to do, it may be the only moment of their week they get to interact with loved ones.
Stop going through life as a routine, stop saving your love for ‘the right times’, today is the most important day in your life, in your child’s life, in your lover’s life. Today they’re trying harder than ever, they need love more than ever, and today you will support and love them more than you ever have. Make today full of moments that matter.
* Article published in Elated News on December edition.