In a New York Minute

“Change is the only constant.”

Heraclitus,

Greek Philosopher

(535 BC-475 BC)

In a New York minute everything can change. There is a song by Don Henley in which he sings about what happens when you forget to pay attention. I felt the weight of this statement heavily this past week. On the eve of Gustav’s projected touchdown in the recently hurricane-torn New Orleans, my daughter went from being perfectly healthy one minute, to having the sniffles the next, and then I was sitting with a doctor as she told me my daughter had pneumonia. Fortunately, the antibiotics kicked in and she is definitely on the mend, but for a couple of days there, things were certainly a little bit scary. And fortunately for the thousands of citizens in New Orleans, Gustav changed direction ever so slightly and this time they were spared the brunt of the storm’s force.

The swiftness with which everything changed was what really caught my attention. One moment we were going along with our lives, happily preparing for the first day of school, running around like the goof balls that we are, playing and enjoying the final beautiful days of summer and then like a light switch being turned off, everything stopped.

When I take a minute to think about these moments in life that are handed to us, I (at least this time around) can be grateful for this gentle nudge given to me to be more mindful of all of the gifts that I have been given in this lifetime, and to also be more watchful, to pay more attention and to have systems in place, ready to go in a moment’s notice.

Nichole Stella

Editorial Director

nstella@napco.com