So last night my house caught on fire... Almost.

I awoke to my phone ringing. It was 1 AM … my neighbor was calling. 3 missed calls? Why was he calling me so late?

There are flashing lights outside ... red and white… wtf???

I looked out my window…

Why is there a fire truck?? Why are they walking towards our house?? What is going on???

I dressed quickly

and walked downstairs. Turns out my timing is quite perfect. As I got to the front door I saw the concerned face of a firefighter through the window.

“Anyone home?”

he asked. I opened the door and let him in … he needed to make sure the fire hadn’t spread to the inside of the home.

We were lucky.

A can of wood stain had caught on fire. Turns out when you leave a compressed rag in an enclosed container it can spontaneously combust. My neighbor smelt the smoke and looked outside to see the flickering light of the fire in our carport.

There wasn’t a lot of damage

They caught it quickly. A new trash can, a bit of pressure washing and it will all be like new… except one thing. My mindset. I’m not traumatized by this, but rather empowered. This was a lucky situation… it could have gone the other way easily.

What if my neighbor hadn’t seen the flame?
What if the fire department hadn’t gotten there in time?
I could be writing this from a cafe instead of my house.

Life is not guaranteed

yet so often we take it for granted. This fire was a wakeup call for me. It has served to help me keep things in perspective.

Be grateful for what you have, it will not be there forever.

Grab life by the balls and really go after your dreams, you will not be here forever.

Express the love you have for your family and friends, they will not be here forever.

We got lucky…

but aren’t we always lucky for having this opportunity at life. Hopefully you don’t need a situation like this to allow you to see how fortunate we really are. Be grateful for what you have and you will enjoy it so much more.

Keep Livn