We look at our lives and our choices and we often say hindsight is 20/20. To me this is the same as saying I can try. This spawns for me a vision of a person saying that they can try and do better. The image that I have is from watching someone say that, only to have a person throw a pen on the floor. They were then asked to pick it up. Once they did the person threw the pen back on the floor and said, "OK now TRY to pick it up."

We know that which is right and wrong. The free will to make choices was something that God gave us. We don't have the option to try, we simply must choose. I have wondered for several months about how we see our lives as difficult. That the choices we have to make are difficult and that life is not easy and how it is sometimes impossible to see the truth. Sometimes the answer, the truth, is presented to us.

I have been a Special Olympics coach for almost five years now. Many of you ask at this moment where does this come from. I have let the first part of this article sit for months not knowing how to wrap it or come to an end. I found the answer in burying my first athlete, and I feel I have found some closure to this story. Missy had been with me from the start as a coach. She was one of the many joys that I have from my coaching special kids. Like many of the athletes, Missy had mental and physical disabilities. She was the person in your life that no matter the day, week, month or life that you were having everything was instantly better when Missy was around.

I learned from her death and the words of the minister that day. I heard the story of a beautiful life. I heard about a person that did not question the beauty of life. I heard terms like, "she never met a stranger". But the key that stuck with me most was the question. "Given the joy and love of life that she not only received, but also gave with her every breath, who was the one with the disability?"

God has given us the gift of life. He also gave us free will. He did the same for Peter. Peter was given the gift to have the chance to see Jesus foretelling. He was given the chance to see his actions and denial. He was given the chance to see the choices he made and the effect they had. That which happened, knotted him. He was given the opportunity to learn and amend his regret. Many of us do not get that chance.

The stances that we take in life whether we serve in the armed forces or protest against them, we must know the cost of our actions and our choices. We cannot forget the things that are most important. We can't see the soldier as a soldier or the protester as a protester. We have to see that person as a father, a daughter, a son, or a grandchild. We have to start seeing people as people. Only then can we see that we are all God's children. Then we will remember.

We have the chance today and everyday forward to be reminded that tomorrow never comes. Today is here and it is here right now. Recently on the radio I heard a new song by Tim McGraw called "Live Like You Were Dying". The story of a man who learns that he is dying and hopes that the rest of us get a chance to live like we were dying. Guess what? We all are. And none of us know when that time will come. Take the chance now, today, this moment to remind yourself and all of your friends and family what is important to you. If you haven't let them know before, realize now it is only too late for those who never speak it. Few of us will ever get the chance that Peter had.

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