19 Azamat 165 B.E. (Baha'i Calendar)

Soundtrack in my head: Lush "Tiny Smiles"

I was surprised today by two unexpected pieces of news about two friends.

I learned earlier this afternoon that a co-worker of mine had suffered a heart attack over the weekend.  Luckily they caught it in time, and the last I heard, she is doing well and is to be discharged from the hospital.

Shocking as the news may be, it was even more shocking to me because she is just a year and a half older than I am.   She and I and another co-worker all went to high school at about the same time and we often will talk about 80's memories.  I would consider her to be basically healthy.  Of course I hear stories of people my age and significantly younger having heart attacks, but I guess it's all academic until you know someone personally who experiences it.  So her experience is certainly making me think.

Then I came home and discovered a message on our dining room whiteboard from one of my housemates informing us that she is to have emergency surgery tomorrow at 7 a.m. She's significantly younger than I am.  I won't go into the details of what she is to have done, but it sounds relatively minor, and in any case could happen at any age.  She'll be back in the next few days.

It's funny how I found out about these two things within just a few hours of each other.  Who knows whether these things are coincidental or divinely arranged.  As per my previous post, I've been making some specific efforts to improve my health and am seeing some success.   Maybe this is a reminder to me to keep it up and maybe step it up a little bit.

Good health is not something to be taken for granted.  It's really funny, because I've had times when I've been in the best of shape, and other times when I've suffered significantly from pain, discomfort and feeling sapped of physical strength.  It's easy to blot those memories out.  In fact, in talking with my housemate who is facing surgery, I realized that I have little memory of being hospitalized for asthma and bronchitis three times between the ages of three and five.

In any case, for those of you pray, keep my friends in your prayers.