“Life is short.”
“Make every moment count.”
“Don’t let the sun go down on your anger.”
They’re cliché phrases that we’ve all used at one point or another in our lives, but we’ve likely only taken them seriously when tragedy strikes… when you want that “one more moment” with the one you love, but that person is no longer there.
Blogger Liz Petrone had a rude awakening of her own this week after missing 14 phone calls from her husband who’d she’d been fighting with all week long.
When she got the text following the string of missed calls that read “ACCIDENT PLEASE CALL NOW,” her stomach dropped to the floor. She was FRANTIC. But Liz learned a powerful life lesson out of what very well could have been her worst nightmare.
Read Liz’s retelling of the chain of events that followed and the lesson she learned BEFORE it was too late… it’s one we could all afford to keep in our back pockets:
“So this happened today. My husband was driving home from work, he is totally fine, just a stupid accident. I was in a meeting when it happened at work and didn’t realize I didn’t have my phone on me which is funny because my phone is basically my fifth limb and when it’s away from me for more than five to ten seconds I start to shake and twitch and not even in a good twerky-type way.
Anyway when I got back I realized I’d missed like 14 calls and there was a text message all in caps that said ACCIDENT PLEASE CALL NOW and my stomach fell all the way into my sensible work heels and my mind went all the way to the worst case scenario and then a little due south into crazy. It wasn’t pretty. I will spare you the details, because that’s not important. What IS important is this:
You see, my husband and I have been fighting all week. Not over anything big or important or heavy, not really, just the kind of normal everyday shit that chips away at two people trying to make a whole big life together: the kids, the house, the bank accounts, the entire livelihood of six people and everything they encompass. The usual. Life is hard.
And my first thought was “[Nick] if you go and die on me while I’m mad at you I’m gonna kill you,” and let’s not get into the scientific and biological inaccuracies in my logic because that’s not the point but rather, the point is this:
NONE OF THE STUFF I WAS MAD ABOUT EVEN MATTERED. Not then. Not when my phone rang 14 times.
God, you guys, things can change in a hot metal-on-metal moment, we know this and yet we forget, we have to because otherwise we would be walking around all twitchy (and not in good way) all of the time.
But today I remembered. And now I’m reminding you, just in case you need it.
That thing you’re mad about? I’m not saying it’s not real, I’m just saying it isn’t everything. It isn’t this. It isn’t the thing that you’re gonna want to remember, forever, if God forbid something happened and you didn’t get to say:
I’m sorry. I love you. I’m so glad you are still here with me in this infuriating imperfect life we’ve built.
Hold your people a little tighter for me tonight. Maybe forgive someone. All I’m saying is, you never know.”
XOXO
Liz.
Share this story with the ones you love today. Who will you hold a little tighter tonight?
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