Some days I just want to take a deep breath and thank the Universe for having me.

Ever do that?

When you think about it, we’re only here for a short time.

Modern humans evolved about 200,000 years ago.

Civilization as we know it is only about 6,000 years old.

Industrialization started in earnest only in the 1800s.

We live. We love. We eat. We sleep. We fight. We win. We lose. We die.

I hate thinking about that last one, but so it goes. The upside is to make every moment count!

So far I’m pretty darn healthy for my age. And no matter how long I get to do be here, I can’t help but feel a part of something bigger. We’re connected. And not just on social media.

There is some longevity in my family.

My paternal grandmother reached her mid 90’s. I’d be really happy with that. Those who were smokers rarely made it beyond 70. That’s sobering.

Although we’re in the boonies here in Vermont, we happen to be near Dartmouth University.

Dartmouth-Hitchcock is a teaching hospital, with some of the finest minds and cutting-edge research. So while you often you get a resident or intern, it seems the big brains watch over everything they do pretty well.

And every once in awhile you get a top-tier teacher. That happened to me today.

Had what I thought a routine visit with my new gastroenterologist. Only he turned out to be a leading teacher and researcher on the cutting edge of medicine. I had requested him because he was the hardest to see. Booked out about seven months in advance. Yesterday they had a cancellation. I grabbed it.

I have acid reflux.

Roughly 20% of Americans do. Almost 200 million people take a proton pump inhibitor like Prilosec to protect their esophagus. I’m one of them. I have a very low level of something called Barrett’s Esophagus. I need a screening every 3-5 years to make sure it doesn’t get worse. It never does.

Today he told me it probably never will. New research narrows down the risk for various stages of Barrett’s.

They used to round everybody up and say it was like 1 in 300 every year would get the big C. So if you were going to live another 300 years…

Now it turns out I’m in a category that’s more like one in every 1,500 years. That would be fifteen 100 year lifespans.

And the dry throat clearing issue I had a few years back? Nothing to do with my esophagus.

He asked if my job required me to talk a lot! Ha.

So it’s a good day. All is well. And yet time is precious, still.

Whatever you’ve got going on…

Enjoy every minute.

Best

Bob