To be laid off is shocking. One moment you were living your best life, and then suddenly it was all over.

I try to put myself in the shoes of someone that’s been laid off, and I feel a tremendous amount of depression. Similar to how the author of “Everything Happens for a Reason” felt when she discovered she had cancer. A shock.

I grew up Catholic. In the Catholic church we celebrate a day called “Ash Wednesday".” During this holiday Catholics attend church so that a priest can mark their forehead with the sign of the cross. That mark is not invisible though.

The priest will dip their thumb into a container of ashes made from burnt palm fronds. It signifies death; ashes to ashes. What does this have to do with layoffs?

Every day ought to be like Ash Wednesday. We should wake up every day and remind ourselves that this life in could end at any moment. Our job, our loved ones, our health - it all could change. We must allow that mark to act as a kind of lens that brings the present more into focus so that we not only appreciate what’s right in front of us, but so we can prepare ourselves for what might come.

Layoffs are shocking, and painful, and my heart hurts for those who have gone through them. I am not naive to think that can’t happen to me. I am trying to live each day as if there was a mark on my forehead. Perhaps there’s something in your life that serve as a mark? A coin, a symbol, a post-it?

I don’t take these words for granted, and I don’t take you for granted.

Right here right now, you are what matters to me.