Throbbing pain lulled him awake after a weekend long battle with exhaustion. His first drug induced thoughts placed him in a nursing home about five decades too soon before the presence of loved ones tipped him off. They filled in Tyler's patchwork memory and like a scene from a movie he identified with their story's hero in terrifying technicolor. By his physical reaction to the account, mom thought it prudent to wait and allow the doctor to fall prey to the messenger's burden. Before he could arrive however her son became keenly aware that part of his body was untouched by pain. He couldn't feel the low thread count sheets on his feet, the blankets warmth which would normally make him uncomfortable or even his mother's hand resting on his leg.
It's incredibly difficult to see beyond our own disappointed expectations. Dream career's usurped by cubicle caged temp work or first-sight love unrequited, keep us blinded to the blessings around. Finding the needle in life's stack of arbitrary goals can feel more like busy work than it does a life worth living. We collect obstacles as a testament to our resilience, the greater the challenge, the more justified we feel to pursue. Completion is not the reward, instead the reward exists both as something to be avoided in an effort to preserve our continued pursuit, as well as a thing to guage our next goal by. Unfortunately none of these constructs make us happy. Happiness needs us to recognize that to be crippled from birth is an excuse for disregarding blessings disguised by timing.
What happened to Tyler could happen to me tomorrow. It's simple to assume our lives may end at any moment. The challenge is to seize life right now, with no regard for the disfiguring perils that come at us when we feel our microwave is properly sealed or the seat belt securely fastened. You are alive in this moment and it's a shame to mistake what limited means we have as anything but extraordinary.
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