Unless you are super-human, chances are there have been times in your life when you didn't accept an invitation to participate in an experience you knew you would enjoy because you were rigidly locked into a schedule. Perhaps you postponed a visit with someone important to you because your house was too clean ( for grandchildren) or too dirty (for friends). Maybe you turned down an invitation for that bike ride or dinner with friends or to attend a concert because you believed there were other things to do that seemed "more important."

I've discovered a lot of people have been thinking about those lost opportunities as they continue to reel from one story after another that has emerged from and since the World Trade Center was attacked. Our lives are no longer trivialized.

Only weeks ago, we were experiencing the fourth month of headlines regarding "Who killed Shandra Levy." Now we ask that question about more about more than 6,000 lives. Its hard to care very much about what TV show has the highest ratings or whether we can get to the mall in time to use the 15% off coupon that expires at noon on Saturday or, for some people, take that long-planned vacation far from home.

Perhaps these losses are a much needed springboard to a future that will include measuring our life by the time we take to balance healthy lifestyle skills with guilty pleasures, by learning how to translate losses into compassion for others and anger into movement that generates positive change. Here is my challenge: Can you spend less time being a human doing and more time becoming a human being including spending more time finding ways to make your heart sing? See you at the concert.