Watch every sunrise like it was your last.

This morning on my way to the gym I encountered something that I have never had to before. Something that I have come close to but never on such a dreadful scale before…

I had been sitting at a red light that had freshly turned green and unlike my usual routine, I waited a few extra second before I proceeded though the light. This light is one I often gas it at once the light turns green, because the light is short and there are usually a pile of cars behind me.

This morning, I was distracted. Was it the cars on the other side of the highway? Was it a thought in my head that held my attention a little bit longer making me not proceed through the light immediately after it turned green? This I don’t know but what I do know, is the few second I waited at the light allowed an SUV to run a solid red light at over 60mph and miss hitting me in the drivers side…

Split seconds.

I was texting my fiance about it and I joked that it would have ruined the SUV drives day if he would have hit me… Aaron, my fiance responded with a simple ” yours and mine and about a hundred others.” Then it hit me. The reality of what COULD have happened sunk in….

Life is more valuable than we can imagine…

This is a photo a snapped this morning on my iPhone…

If this was your last sunrise …

What if this was the last sunrise I ever saw? What if I wouldn’t have waited a few seconds? Who would it effect? What would the outcome be? Aaron’s simple comment about hundreds being effected made me laughed at first. I mean what impact could I have on others that it would matter…

My mind quickly scrambled and thoughts flew through mind… my fiance and family. My best friends Evie, Cari, and Sarah and my mind went to my clients… happily engaged couples who await me to capture their special wedding day. Families with freckle faced cuties and high school seniors who are proud of all they have accomplished. The girls I teach every other week about how to be a girl of God and a remarkable treasure. My next thought was of my assistant, Ellen, the girl who is equally as silly as me and how much fun we have working together. My mind continued to race and more things than I can recall and tell you came to the front of my brain…

You never know who you effect in a day. That smile you just flashed to the old man on the bench inside the mall… That “how are you?” you just asked the casher in Walmart and the few seconds you carried on a conversation with her allowing you to vent about her life could be just what she needed.

I’m learning how NOT to take life for granted. Watch every sunrise like it was your last.