you know I was 19 I was in love with my
high school sweetheart we went to school
together we signed up for classes
together we shared a u-haul on the way
to school together we lived in the same
dorm together we walked to class we
walked to breakfast in the morning and
walk the class thing I mean we were just
joined at the hip and we were completely
crazy infatuated in love and everything
was tied up in that relationship and
then halfway through the first year of
college she discovered beer and other
boys on the same night and she cheated I
was wrecked emotionally just devastated
I mean I could not even operate in life
anymore I mean reading changed my life
because I was still reading there was
one thing that's brought me through
everything I've always been a reader and
I having to pick up the school newspaper
and he was little page ad and it was
this perfect white sandy beach turquoise
water blue sky little wisp of a cloud
big green palm tree and across the top
of the ad it said escaped students
needed for summertime jobs in the
Dominican Republic so I escaped them
went down there and one night my friend
Kevin and I we hopped into a car after
dropping off a client and we were in the
northeast part of the country new
developing part of the country and a new
road had been paved and we start flying
down this road going back to where we
were staying so we're going down this
road 85 miles an hour in this car and
we've got I still remember all of the
feelings of the entire thing because all
the windows were open and the windows
were open and that air was coming in
that amazing humid if you've been in the
Caribbean that just gorgeous amazing
humid air is coming in and just this
life in this vibrancy felt like it was
in the car and we're driving down the
road 85 miles an hour on the road
the radio is playing Tom Cochran's life
is a highway and we're singing this song
at the top life is high we're just
singing this
having this great time and then we came
upon a corner we would go around that
corner
Kevin grabs the wheel he goes hold on
and the car starts sliding sideways and
that weird slow motion thing happens the
car skid off the highway and when it
popped up popped up into the air several
times I smacked my head when it hit the
ground rolled several times I got
knocked out completely when I came to I
looked over and Kevin is screaming thump
his lungs kkeok are burned the Kalakaar
and I look over and a whole big chunk of
his head is open there's blood
everywhere his eyes are well get out a
car got the car and I stand up
eventually on the hood of the car
looking down and he's screaming over
here and I look and I noticed all this
blood on me and I feel like this shock
and this terror going down look down and
I see that blood and that slow-motion
thing is kicking in and I'm watching the
blood come off of me onto the hood of
the car and this fear just comes out and
drains all over the hood of the car and
I remember just looking down and that
slow motion things happening I just
thought did I even matter was their
purpose to this
and was their reason for all and I
didn't like that answer did I matter I I
felt like I was gonna pass out and I
felt sad and I saw the blood going off
the hood of the car
it just knows about to pass out I notice
a glint like a sparkle some shiny a
reflection in the blood going off
through the car and made me look up and
there was this bright big beautiful moon
that night
I hadn't even seen it earlier moon so
big that the blueness was emanating
across the whole sky
[Music]
and I just immediately felt this
connection if like I knew
I was gonna be okay
from this morning of fear just this
immediate moan of connection I felt like
I was gonna be okay and I felt like the
big guy upstairs reach down to me and
handed me life's golden ticket he
reached down said here you go kid you're
still alive you can still love and
matter but now you know the clock is
ticking
[Music]
I remember getting that ticket like that
that feeling of gratitude for being here
that feeling of a second chance
and I just remember feel like that
feeling I'm gonna be okay but I wanted
to do something I just felt like
I will earn this
I'll earn this
because I think when you get a blessing
you want to earn it
and I felt that and I remember feeling
like this connection like I'm still here
I'm okay it's gonna be alright but now
like I said I knew that time was limited
mortality motivation mortality
motivation I got is a 19 year old kid
people say why you so successful my I
got mortality motivation when I was 19
that's a blessing most of you don't get
that till her sixty I got real lucky at
that but I got it - I got it I got it
one thing that I took away from that
entire thing was that moment and those
questions because I remembered them and
I thought about them as I was healing I
said what was that about why did I feel
so unhappy with that moment because I
thought you know in the last moments of
life there must be this transcendence
and I was not happy and I realized it
was because of how I'd been living my
life and I wasn't living to my questions
I knew I got those questions did I live
did I love did I matter as soon as I got
that those were the questions I'm gonna
evaluate myself with at the end of the
life it gave me the power of what my
late mentor Wayne Dyer taught the power
of intention I got it when you know how
you're going to evaluate your life at
the end you got real intention you got
mortality motivation and everything
changes you're lucky to be alive do you
have this breath right now a second
chance doesn't happen to once or twice
every single day that breath you just
took feel it
feel a breath take a breath in what a
blessing that is you got that life
what a blessing is you got that breath
what a blessing because that means you
still got time
that means you still got something
inside that means you're still here and
now you just got to earn that blessing
you got to work for it you got to
contribute for it you got to give for it
you got a lead for it you got a love for
it because you still have something not
just in you you're still here for a
reason
Oh