Good times and bad...

Seems like everywhere I go these days bad news follows. Obviously the older we get the more death and illness we experience and the more funerals we attend, but sometimes I feel like far too much of our time is being spent dealing with bad news. Cancer, freak accidents, long illnesses, and sudden tragedies--I've seen and heard it all in the past several weeks.

The people who have been in my thoughts and prayers recently are my friend Charlie Pitts whose wife Lisa passed away earlier this month after a three-year fight against ovarian cancer, the family of Hercules Darby who was involved in a fatal tree cutting accident last week, and my mom's friend Ann Ligon who's six-month-old granddaughter, Ellis Johnson, passed away last weekend after a brief battle with SCIDS (Severe combined immunodeficiency syndrome). And also I'm praying for the John Sullivan family. John, who's been my boss at the Department of Revenue for 7 years and whose children, Sara and John Press, I love and adore, found out last week that he has lung cancer and will not be returning to work.

In addition to all of this bad news, my coworker and friend Dree found out on Friday that after two stem cell transplants and only a few months in remission, she may now be out of remission again in her fight against multiple myeloma. I'm traveling with her to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota this weekend for a battery of tests, and possibly treatments, for her condition. We will be there for one week which should hopefully be enough time for her doctor to develop his new "game plan."

Whenever I hear bad news like this I make sure to take the time to thank God for all the blessings in my life. I continually try to ensure that I don't take these blessings for granted. And I try to appreciate every day that I'm given because we don't how many more days we will have with the people that we love. If only there were a way to slow down the passing of time...