Everything can change in just one second. In one second you can walk into a room full of strangers, not knowing that the love of your life is in that room, too. I know that entering that room can be nerve-wracking – I hope you step into it anyway.

Everything can change in just one second. In the second it takes you to pick up your phone and text while driving, you can get into an accident, potentially harm or take a life. I hope you put the phone down. I hope you wait to hit send.

Everything can change in just one second. In the second it takes to smile at a stranger, or hold a door, or say thank you, or give a compliment – you can brighten that human’s day. Perhaps they were clouded in sadness – and your words of encouragement were rays of light that broke through. You don’t know. You never will. But I hope you take the second to spread that encouragement, anyway.

Everything can change in one second. It takes a second to say, “I love you.” That’s it. Just one. But at that moment, everything changes. At that moment, worlds collide, and hearts are molded, and lives become intertwined. In the second it takes you to utter those three words, the rest of your life can unfold into something new. I hope you say it.

Everything can change in one second. It takes one second to risk the precious things in your life that you have cultivated. One second to hit send on that text, one second to engage in that fight, one second to walk away from it all. I hope you think before you walk away. I hope you fight for what you hold dear. I hope, if it’s healthy, you stay.

Everything can change in just one second. It takes one second to say, I’m going to do better. Right here, right now, I’m owning the fact that I’m not doing well, and from this moment forward, I’d like to do better – I’d like to be better. I don’t want to wait. Now, change doesn’t happen overnight, and maybe you’ll slip up again, but the second that you plant the seed of change is the moment you begin to do so. I hope you begin.

There are 86,400 seconds in one day. That’s 86,400 decisions, 86,400 choices, 86,400 moments that are there to live – moments for the taking that you cannot get back.

I hope you take them.