I was wandering around YouTube recently and ran across several interviews with Linda Ronstadt. After she announced that she had Parkinson’s disease and couldn’t sing any more, everybody wanted to talk with her. Before then, I can’t remember the last time I saw her interviewed on TV. Why is that? Why does it take something dramatic—tragic even—happening to somebody to make us appreciate them?
I spent many an angst-ridden teenage night huddled up in my room with one of Linda’s hurtin’ songs spinning on the turntable. Maybe I just didn’t realize what that music was doing for me way back then. Maybe I don’t realize what the special people who touch my life on an average day are doing for me now. But I want to.
We can get on such a treadmill that we don’t look up much. But we need to. It’s important—to be aware, to be attuned, to be grateful even for the little things—like daffodils blooming in all the rain we've had.
I'll be striving—in all the daily striving—to stop, breathe, look around, and be thankful.
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