Heroes

We aren't promised anything in life.  We aren't even promised that we will get to come home tonight after work.  Sometimes just the routine things that we do everyday may be our last time to do them.  What if the last time you talked you your mom was the last time? What if the last time you kissed your husband or wife was the last time? Or what if the last time you tucked your baby into bed was the last time?

I don't know Pie personally but I am pretty sure she's the baddest chick in town.  I am impressed with her quick wit and cool head. She's so cool that I think I might be her for Halloween next year. She makes women everywhere want to own a gun and know how to use it.  Now, if y'all aren't familiar with what I'm talking about I will give you the abbreviated version.  Pie was kidnapped at gunpoint from a gas station in Springhill while she was pumping gas.  She was then forced to drive into Arkansas, where she made a decision that probably saved her life.  She decided she wasn't going any further with this man.  She grabbed a gun, fired shots at the dude, bailed out of her car, and then she ran for her life.   As I watched her interview on a local news station, I was struck by her comment about "the will to live".  Wow.  She knew exactly what she had to do to stay alive and she knew exactly why she needed to be alive.  I'm sure in a million different ways she thought about a beautiful little 4 month old girl she needed to pick up.  She knew that she had so many things she had left to do.  If she was like me she had laundry that needed folding and chicken that needed cooking. She probably even had a Wal-Mart list.  She may have even forgotten to feed her dogs that day.  She had to give her husband a good night kiss and (if he is anything like mine) find his socks for him.  She had diapers to change and kisses to steal.  She had bedtime stories to read and a game of peek-a-boo to play.  She had a life to live.  An ordinary, extraordinary, plain, wonderful life.  I don't know what actually went through her mind, but the thoughts were of her family - that I'm sure of.  The will to live far outweighed any fear that she had.  Her will to live - her survival instinct - was fueled by a family that she had said good bye to earlier in the day and even though it was unspoken, she promised them she would return.  It was all in her goodbye.  You and I say it everyday - "Bye! See you later".  Some don't get to keep that promise, but Pie did.  She not only got to come home, but she showed her daughter what a hero is really made of. In years to come someone will tell that little girl what her mom did and she will be so proud to have such a strong courageous mommy.
Thanksgiving this year was sweeter than the last for Pie and her family. They had so much to be thankful for.  Whenever faced with a near tragedy it makes the plainest moments in life that much sweeter and more meaningful. 
I know about near tragedies, and I know about sweeter moments.  Tomorrow is never promised, we don't know what is in store for us.  What we do have is the now, the exact moment when we start living our life and we stop waiting for the tomorrow we are never promised.

Pie- I'm glad you got to keep your unspoken promise and come home - Welcome home to your new life!

'Til Tomorrow