Touch.

echoinglight:

I have a story. It may seem trivial at first, but just listen to the full thing. If you want to skip the prologue and just read the message part, jump down to below the line.

I watched an episode of a show called “Touch” today. It’s about these people that see patterns - things that are interconnected and how each thing affects something else. In essence, fate. Everything happens for a reason. And there’s a boy who sees all of these in an incredible way, but he can’t speak. So there were all these different people with their own stories, but they all affected each other. One woman was about to get on a plane, but there was an issue with her luggage and she had to leave; a man she had been talking to then had her seat since they were on standby. He had been telling her how he regretted making this deal to tear down a legendary jazz building for a high rise. Before they parted, he gave her his card, writing “IOU” on the back.

Later, that man woke in the middle of a field, the plane crashed and burning around him. Caught in shock, he walked back to his office and sat down. Not long after, he got up and went to his boss, calling the deal off. He said, “No, I DON’T have my whole life and career ahead of me - I have to do something that matters. And it has to be today.”

Meanwhile, the woman had gone home and there was a kind of confrontation with her and her wife. Her wife couldn’t get pregnant despite all they had tried. They had a dispute over the woman’s career being more important than having the child.

Back to the man. He went to the building which was to be blown up in ten minutes, fighting off the workers who were trying to force him out. Because of this, another pair of people (the father of the boy that could see patterns and another woman) were able to sneak into the building, where they knew the woman’s homeless mother was hiding. They managed to get her out, and she stopped and said to the man caught by the workers (who hadn’t believed her) “thank you… you saved my mother’s life.” The man smiled and suddenly, they noticed he was bleeding heavily from his chest, a wound from the plane crash. He slumped over… and was dead.

Back to the woman and her wife. She got a phone call and in a daze, turned on the TV… and watched the report of the plane crash. “I was supposed to be on that flight…” she whispered, her wife wrapping her arms tearfully around her. And suddenly, light jumped into her eyes. “Oh my god. We have to try again. And I mean now. Screw what the doctors say!”

“But your career-“

“It can wait - our family can’t!”

Overwhelmed, her wife grabbed a book of donors and sat next to her, flipping to a page of “snakes” in the Chinese zodiac (she was very spiritual).

And the man she turned to was the man who’d gotten on the plane instead of that woman.

Eyes wide, she pulled out the card he’d given her.

IOU.

“I have a good feeling about this one.” Her wife smiled.

“Yes… I do too.” The woman replied, looking dazed.

—-

At the conclusion of this, I walked away crying.

I don’t care how cliche it is, this is something we can never be reminded of enough: we do not know what the future is. All we have is the moment we are living. We can’t spend our lives hiding, or afraid, or worried that something it silly. Go love, and be as emotional and spazzy as you want, go on adventures, enjoy everything you do. Remember how important every moment is. Even the most usual of tasks can seem a beautiful thing. Colors can be brighter, work can seem more enjoyable. If you just take the time to actually pay attention to what you are doing in life. Do something that matters. And I don’t mean change the world. Do what matters to you. Like… I write. That’s how I connect, that’s how I feel alive. So now every moment I write is that much more precious. And I love my friends but I so rarely have time with them - so each text, each IM, each hello is going to be that much more meaningful. You know that feeling when someone you just made friends with and you are so thrilled about texts you and you are so so happy? Feel that way about all the people you talk to and love. Be excited! Be thankful that they exist and that you know them and that you now have someone you can make smile or get a smile from. Be thankful you have someone to give love to. Be thankful to be loved.

I’ve been so caught up in stuff the past few weeks that I literally forgot I was alive. And how do you go on like that? You don’t. You’re stuck. Nothing… happens. I’ve experienced no real joy because I haven’t been paying attention. And it’s miserable.

So be thankful to be alive. Don’t waste any of it!

THANK YOU TO THIS POST. I JUST… I HAVE SO MUCH EMOTION RIGHT NOW AFTER WATCHING THIS EPISODE. And sorry for the capslock.