It’s a call to greatness. To become expanded in this way, to know that life is unspeakably fragile, to feel that to spend even minutes in cruise control is squandering an irreplaceable resource -- this awareness mandates an urgency -- a burn -- to create an unprecedented future.
It has become so clear that wasting time on a regular basis is an extravagance much worse than throwing billions of dollars into a bonfire. The barriers to changing established habits have been melted down in this particular experiential tunnel of fire we’re passing through.
These eight months of three open-heart surgeries, the last a heart transplant -- hour after hour, day after day of pain, uncertainty, frustration, wonder, celebration and above all gratitude -- all of this is part of the gestation of a new self -- if we allow it.
Looking behind is gone. Why review a past when we are newborns in this fresh life? There’s an unlimited view ahead with unimaginable grand vistas to explore.
I wrote this and later that day, Lee said:
“I’m in a position to save lives -- and I think it’s because of Jim Keegan. Someone will look at me someday the way I looked at Jim standing there so fit and happy two years after his heart transplant-- with renewed hope and determination. I do intend to pay it forward and help someone else to begin to trust that there’s life after dire diagnoses and extreme surgery.
Even time I spend with someone who is not in a health crises may steer him or her away from carelessness, from dwelling on what’s not right rather than what is, from small pursuits rather than great ones.”
The truth is that we are ALL in a position to save lives. We all have this same super power, but we’ve forgotten that we have it. We’ve been lulled to sleep by the demands and distractions of everyday life.
Heart transplant shook Lee awake. And me too -- just by bearing witness. However, people awake to their true potential every day without the catalyst of a life threatening event. Waking up may be accomplished by a hard “shove” like it was for us, or you may be roused by the whispers of those who are living their lives awake. We just have to seek them out and listen to their reveille. It's the call to greatness.
It has become so clear that wasting time on a regular basis is an extravagance much worse than throwing billions of dollars into a bonfire. The barriers to changing established habits have been melted down in this particular experiential tunnel of fire we’re passing through.
These eight months of three open-heart surgeries, the last a heart transplant -- hour after hour, day after day of pain, uncertainty, frustration, wonder, celebration and above all gratitude -- all of this is part of the gestation of a new self -- if we allow it.
Looking behind is gone. Why review a past when we are newborns in this fresh life? There’s an unlimited view ahead with unimaginable grand vistas to explore.
I wrote this and later that day, Lee said:
“I’m in a position to save lives -- and I think it’s because of Jim Keegan. Someone will look at me someday the way I looked at Jim standing there so fit and happy two years after his heart transplant-- with renewed hope and determination. I do intend to pay it forward and help someone else to begin to trust that there’s life after dire diagnoses and extreme surgery.
Even time I spend with someone who is not in a health crises may steer him or her away from carelessness, from dwelling on what’s not right rather than what is, from small pursuits rather than great ones.”
The truth is that we are ALL in a position to save lives. We all have this same super power, but we’ve forgotten that we have it. We’ve been lulled to sleep by the demands and distractions of everyday life.
Heart transplant shook Lee awake. And me too -- just by bearing witness. However, people awake to their true potential every day without the catalyst of a life threatening event. Waking up may be accomplished by a hard “shove” like it was for us, or you may be roused by the whispers of those who are living their lives awake. We just have to seek them out and listen to their reveille. It's the call to greatness.
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