Fast Heartbeat

What makes your heart beat fast? Is it:

Your favorite team winning a championship

Seeing your favorite celebrity at Starbucks

The aroma of Starbucks coffee in the morning

Seeing your child enjoy an achievement

Watching your child be born

All of these events and more may make our hearts beat faster. The enjoyment energizes our emotions and raises our spirits.

Yesterday I experienced a different type of fast heartbeat. All of a sudden my pulse increased to over 160 beats per minute. At first I wasn’t sure what I was feeling or what to do. I had not experienced this before. Fortunately after a short time my wife called my cardiologist and we went to the emergency room.

Medical personnel reacted as you would hope and a flurry of activity happened around me. I was hooked up to an EKG and pumped with medicine through an IV. Chest xrays were taken and blood was drawn. The teamwork and precision of nurses was amazing.

And then the calm took place. My heart reacted properly to the medicine and the heartbeat decreased significantly. Everybody else left the room and I was left alone. It was eerily quiet. I was comfortable and relaxed as I waited.

I don’t yet know the end result. I am out of the hospital but a consultation with a specialist was arranged and I was given a prescription for a new medicine. Now we wait.

Through this experience, I am reminded of the brevity of life. Even though life is short, we only get one chance at it. We should consider our choices carefully and examine how we affect others. I saw a guy on the news the other day explain why he won’t wear a mask during this pandemic. He said, “I am not going to wear a mask just so you can feel safe.” That statement told me a lot about the man. He has little concern for others and will not bear the smallest inconvenience for other people. His impact upon others is probably generally pretty negative.

I don’t want to have a negative impact on others. I want to leave a positive legacy for others. I make mistakes and regret the impact of those mistakes upon others. But generally I try to offer good in what I do.

The apostle Paul wrote “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” I want to demonstrate that type of love. And yes, I wear a mask in public.