43 families.

The title for this post was going to be "Every day is someone's last" - but that seemed a bit too morbid for a title. You may have guessed I'm writing about the tragedy that took place at Ft. Hood today. My heart goes out to the 43 families who were personally impacted by this senseless shooting. Loss of a loved one is so hard to deal with, especially when it is sudden and unexpected. I don't think I'll ever understand how anyone makes it through losing a child. One thing I've learned over these past 2 years is that there is a day that each and every one of us will leave this life on earth, and we have to be ready on that day. We don't know when it is, and we have no control over when it will come. And when our time does come, we have to be ready to go. I don't know if this is something most people learn at 26, but for me it has really hit home these past few years since losing Uncle Jim, Mama Dara, Aunt Peggy, and Uncle Dan so close together. During Uncle Dan's last week of life (if you can call it that when you are dependent on life support), I heard the Chris Tomlin song I will rise about a hundred times. It reminded me that we all will face "our time" and when it comes we should be ready and willing to go. The harder part of that is letting the people we love go when it is their time. The truth is that any day can be anyone's last, and every day is someone's. One day ours too will come. Will you be ready?