Gone Too Soon

It never ceases to amaze me when people have these "epiphanies" after losing someone, seeing someone get hurt, or worse, experiencing death. I understand the idea that death or any kind of loss makes us appreciate life, but it also helps me understand just how transparent we are as a human race. When things are going good and we're living our "blessed & highly favored" lives, no one thinks to praise God for the little things that keep our lives together. We receive monetary gifts & let those people control us mentally, yet we never take a minute to be thankful for the people who give us priceless kind words and encouragement, each and every day. We get invited to social events that we spend hundreds of dollars to improve our image for, yet we never spend a single moment saying thank you to those who spend countless hours trying to improve us on the inside every day, for free. The number of Facebook, Twitter & Instagram posts I see with the same "gone too soon" message is astonishing. This person who God so suddenly snatched away from us was such an inspiration in our lives that we never took the time to acknowledge them this way, until they were gone. How ironic is it that we don't know the full extent of how much a person means to us until they're gone? How shallow are we to overlook the one person who gives us life everyday, until that person finally decides to leave us? I don't have enough fingers to count the people I've encouraged, loved, & been selflessly devoted to, who have taken me for granted & then realized how much I meant to them, only after they no longer had me in their corners. It's a vicious cycle; we have some of God's greatest blessings right in front of our faces, yet we never take the time to see them. Our most valuable gifts in the form of companions, lying next to us every night in our bedrooms, yet we let them walk away without a fight. The most influential pieces of our lives walking with us, each & every day yet we never even notice until God finally takes them away...
When will we finally learn to appreciate the little things before they're taken away?