I’m so grateful for right now.

Every breath we take is a miracle. This past week alone, I’ve learned how precious life is. From mourning the cruel reality of cancer to facing the inevitability of natural causes, or fearing for your own life in the wake of so much hate in our world, death has taken away from us people we loved and cherished.

I understand, to be alive right now is difficult for many. Based on the color of our skin, our gender, our heritage, our citizenship, our physical features, our education, our religion, and everything and anything else that has caused many of us to live our lives with turmoil, sadness, fear, and worry.

But friend, I don’t ask you to ignore the problems of this world but to take a moment to give love and affirmation to the first person next to you.

Right now is filled with love in many things, through a friend, a lover, a family member.

Right now is filled with beauty in the sky, the breeze, or in the face of someone you love.

Right now is filled with opportunities to grow and to experience.

Because of death, many of our loved ones and friends will never experience what we have which is right now.

There are a lot of things going wrong in this world. Broken hearts, fights with loved ones, political arguments, discrimination, losing a job, failure, so many things that leave us with lingering feelings of hate, disappointment or sadness.

Right now is hard to appreciate because we’re having a hard time letting go of things in our past or worrying about the future. How can you live your life now to the fullest if your attention is divided from this?

Take a breath. Relax and clear your mind of everything going on with your country, your work/school life, your interpersonal relationships with people you’re angry at. Stop what you’re doing and for a moment think about all the people you love, the beauty of this life, the blessings you have and how you can live the present moment to the fullest.

My good friend gave me some insight that I would like to share:

"The present never stops it's constantly erratic, uncertain, and shifting. The present slips between our fingers fleeting into the past. We need to seize it now we need to seize every opportunity of today. Hold on to the things we love, the things we value, the things we believe in. We hope for a brighter future, which is constantly approaching us, and we prepare for the worst to come and pray we're strong enough to handle it. Because we've already made it this far.

There are 86,400 seconds in a day that we use once and never get back, so make it count because the “now” is as fragile as life itself . Anything can happen, but even if worse comes to worst, if we can truly appreciate the "now", if we seize today for a better tomorrow, then there can be no regrets and we can be thankful for all our blessings.”

We may not have a certain future. Death and misfortune are looming at any moment. Our past has already happened. To dwell on our personal mistakes, to live with regret, to live with anger is wasteful. Friends, we need to remember that life is too short, so fragile. We have right now.

I'm grateful for right now. I hope we all can be.

This is dedicated to the beautiful Giselle Illada, who battled cancer with beauty and grace.

Giselle, cancer took you away from us physically, but you will forever live on in our hearts.

Side Note: Thank you to my fellow brother-in-Christ, Justin Lucero, for his great advice that helped me write this article.