Divine Encounters Episode 122 | Near-Death Experience Story
Hal Elrod was 20, a young Cutco salesman driving home from a speech, when he says a drunk driver hit him head on and his heart stopped for six minutes. In this Divine Encounters episode he tells Alex Ferrari what happened on the road, in the hospital and years later in a cancer diagnosis and a six month depression. It is a conversation about how a person decides to meet an unchangeable reality.
Key Takeaways
- Hal says he was hit head on at 70 miles an hour, then broadsided by a second car, and that his heart stopped for six minutes before he was cut out of the wreck.
- He spent six days in a coma, says he flatlined twice more, and woke to a medical team telling him he might never walk again.
- Hal says he decided in the hospital to be the happiest, most grateful person in a wheelchair if that became his life. His doctors worried he was in denial.
- He says he took his first step three weeks after the crash, one week after his parents were told he was delusional.
- He describes forgiving the driver and asking the court for a sentence that put the man to work speaking at schools.
- In 2020, Hal says, he faced a rare, aggressive cancer and a six month stretch of depression, and he learned what he calls the biggest lesson about family.
- His practice: accept what you cannot change, write the painful feelings down, close the book, and choose freedom.
| Guest | Hal Elrod |
| Episode | Divine Encounters 122 |
| Age at the time | 20, at the time of the car crash |
| What Hal says happened | A head on collision with a drunk driver, followed by a second car hitting his door |
| Time away | About six minutes without a heartbeat, then six days in a coma |
| What he says about the experience | He has no memory of the crash or the two weeks around it, and he does not describe an afterlife in this conversation |
| Later challenges | A rare, aggressive cancer diagnosis and a six month depression in 2020 |
| The message | Accept what you cannot change, find the gratitude, and choose to be free |
Life Before the Crash
Hal Elrod was in sales. Specifically, he sold Cutco, the high quality kitchen knives, and by the night of the crash he had been with the company for a year and a half. He says it was the company’s 50th anniversary year, the year he started.
That night he had given a speech at a Cutco sales conference. Speaking was already part of his life. He tells Alex that he had been speaking at Cutco events and had a dream of becoming a motivational speaker, someone like Tony Robbins. He also says, plainly, that he had lived a fairly easy, normal life up to then. He had been bullied, but nothing remarkable had happened that he had to overcome.
Hold that detail. It matters later, because it shapes how he reads everything that follows.
The Night of the Crash
Hal was driving home after the speech when, he says, a drunk driver hit his car head on at 70 miles an hour. The airbags went off. Then he spun off the other car and a vehicle behind him broadsided him, hitting his door at 70 miles an hour and crushing the left side of his body.
He lists the injuries without drama. His femur broke in half. His pelvis broke in three places. His arm broke in two pieces and his elbow shattered, and the radial nerve was severed. Three bones around his eye socket were shattered, and an ear was almost completely severed. The roof buckled and the metal sliced a V into the top of his head. In all, he says, he broke 11 bones.
Hal does not remember any of it. His last memory is getting onto the freeway. He does not remember the headlights or the impact, and he says there are two weeks of his life he cannot recall. He is grateful for that. Looking back, he says he would imagine the body shuts itself down into a coma when pain gets to be too much, and he thanks God he was not awake.
Six Minutes Without a Heartbeat
Here is the part Alex asks about. Hal says his heart stopped for six minutes, and that he was clinically dead for that time. He explains it this way: the car itself was keeping him alive, because the pressure of the crushed metal held in the bleeding. He was still losing blood through the wounds in his leg and arm.
It took rescuers an hour to cut the roof off and pull the door back with the jaws of life. When he was finally freed, Hal says, he bled to death. Responders began pumping blood right away, and he was put on a helicopter while they worked with defibrillators.
He says he is thankful they did not give up after five minutes. At about six minutes, his heart started again. In the days that followed, he says, he flatlined twice more. Hal does not describe a light, a tunnel or a place beyond. What he describes is the clinical edge of it, and the way he chose to come back to a hard life. You can read how people use the term in our glossary entry on the near-death experience.
Waking Up to an Unimaginable Reality
Hal spent six days in a coma. When he came out of it, he says, he did not know where he was. A doctor told him the facts: he had broken 11 bones, he would probably never walk again, and he had permanent brain damage.
He calls it an unimaginable reality, the kind nobody expects to face. And then he describes what he did with it. Almost right away he started asking himself a question: how will this experience serve me, and how will it serve other people?
He says his speech was slurred, it was hard to formulate thoughts, and his memory was poor. He also says he could not use his left hand for six months, because the nerve was severed and no one knew if the movement would return. That is a lot to hold at once. A hand, a leg, a mind. And still the question stayed the same.
The Doctors Who Thought He Was in Denial
Hal was happy. Genuinely so, he says. He was making jokes and making the doctors laugh from a hospital bed, after being told he might never walk. The doctors did not like it. They called his parents in and said they were concerned that Hal was not facing reality and was delusional.
His father came to him one week after the crash, eyes red, probably from crying. Hal says the doctors told his dad that he should be sad, scared, angry and depressed, and asked how he was really feeling when the lights went out. Hal gave his answer. He was a little scared he might not walk, but he had already imagined it. If he never walked again, he had decided he would be the happiest, most grateful person his father had ever seen in a wheelchair. In his words, “I will not let my unchangeable reality determine my mental and emotional well-being.”
This is not a claim that sadness is wrong. It is Hal describing a choice he made about where to put his energy. Peace with what cannot be changed, and energy toward what can.
A Lesson He Learned at Eight
Hal tells Alex that his parents had already lost a child. When he was eight, his 18 month old baby sister died. He woke one Saturday morning to his mother screaming, and he ran across the hall. His mother was performing CPR on the baby. It was just Hal, his mom and his sister at home. His father was at work and his other sister was away.
Within six months, he says, his mother was leading a support group for other parents who had lost children. A boy of eight watched that. He says the lesson planted itself: “you take your adversity and you use it to help other people.” You take your pain and find purpose.
That is why, he says, when he woke from the coma, the idea was already waiting for him. He told his dad that he had wanted to be a speaker but had never had anything remarkable to overcome. Now he believed this was why it was happening. He was supposed to move through it in the most positive, proactive way, learn from it, and then teach others. For more on this kind of turning point, see our guide to soul purpose.
The First Step
The doctors told Hal he would be in the hospital for a year. Hal says even his own optimism and unwavering faith had been picturing about a year. Then, one week after his parents were told he was delusional, the doctors came in with a clipboard. They had looked at the routine X-rays taken that morning and said he was ready to take his first step.
That was three weeks after the crash. He had a rod in his leg, a rod and screws in his arm and elbow, and plates in his eye. His physical therapist, Bob, rolled him into the therapy room, up to the parallel bars. His dad took a photo. Hal still shows three pictures when he gives his keynote: what was left of the car, Hal with tubes coming out everywhere, and Hal taking that first step.
He says that first step was the moment he thought: if I can do this, I can do anything. He was out of the hospital four weeks later.
Forgiving the Driver
Soon after he got home, Hal went to court for the hearing of the man who hit him. People in the hospital had asked if he wanted to kill the guy. Hal said no. He says he does not know where the perspective came from at 20, but he saw a 31 year old married man with a three year old child who had a few beers at a bar and then drove home. Hal says he made bad decisions with alcohol in high school too. A bad decision does not make an evil person. He had zero anger toward him.
Because Hal was slurring and struggling to speak, his parents spoke for him, with his input. The court was proposing three years. Hal suggested six months in prison, enough time to ponder and reflect, and then that the remaining two and a half years be spent speaking at schools about what happened. His thinking was that sitting in a prison cell does not make a positive impact, and the man’s children would be without a dad.
The judge declined the creative sentence and gave the full term. Hal never followed up and does not know how it played out. He says he is at peace and has forgiven him.
Then he adds something honest. That peace, he says, was tested years later, when he went through cancer and faced the thought of not being around for his own kids.
The Dark Night, Cancer and Depression
Hal says his dark night of the soul started at the end of 2019 and ran through 2020. It was a six month stretch of depression and wanting to die, and he says he did not sleep more than two to four hours a night, every single night.
If you are struggling, you are not alone. In the US you can call or text 988 any time.
One night he woke up struggling to breathe. At the ER they drained almost two liters of fluid from his lung. They suspected pneumonia and sent him home with antibiotics. A day and a half later he could not breathe again. This went on for about 11 days, with different hospitals, before he was diagnosed with a rare, aggressive form of cancer. He and his family had moved to Texas only two months before.
Hal remembers the doctor wrestling with how to say it. Hal put a hand on the doctor’s arm and told him about a rule he lives by, the five minute rule: “I accept life before it even happens.” Whatever the doctor was about to say, he said, he was already at peace with it. The doctor told him it looked like cancer, and Hal says the peace was instantaneous. His next words were, essentially, okay, what are we going to do?
He says there were still moments in prayer asking what he was supposed to learn, since he thought he had learned the lessons of the car accident. This time he was awake for all of it: the chemo, the sleepless nights, being close to death again. See our page on the dark night of the soul for more on this kind of season.
What the Cancer Changed: Family First
The biggest lesson, Hal says, was about family. If you had asked him what mattered most, he would have said his wife and kids without a pause. Then he realized he only thought he valued them first.
So he changed what he did. He had been waking his children up in the morning with a puppet show, which he did for years until they said they were done with it, and putting them to bed with stories. During his cancer journey, he says, he shifted his behavior right away. He took them to school and picked them up, and spent real time with his family.
Values are not what we say. They are what we schedule. Hal’s version is simple and a little humbling.
A Practice for Hard Seasons
Near the end, Hal offers something practical. First, “Give yourself permission to take a break from all of the painful, detrimental, difficult emotions” that are not serving you. Put them in writing, close the book, and let them lie there.
Second, realize you are free. In his words, you are “free to think, feel, and experience whatever you choose to experience.” So accept what you can’t change, be at peace with reality, journal the feelings, let them go, and choose freedom: love, joy, peace, gratitude, forgiveness, whatever you need in this moment. Do that daily, he says, and life will eventually be different, in a good way.
If you want a gentle place to begin, try a simple gratitude practice, or sit for a few minutes in mindfulness. For the wider context of stories like this one, start with our complete guide to near-death experiences.
Questions to Sit With
- Hal says he decided how he would meet an unchangeable reality before it arrived. What is one thing in your life you cannot change, and what would it look like to make peace with it?
- He says his mother turned grief into a support group within six months. Where could your own pain be turned into help for someone else?
- Hal found that he only thought he valued family first. What does your calendar say about what you value most?
This week, write down one painful feeling in a notebook, close the cover, and leave it there for the day. Then write one thing you are grateful for.
Spiritual Takeaways
- Hal says peace with what cannot be changed frees up energy for what can.
- He describes adversity as something to use in service of other people, a lesson he says he learned at eight years old.
- He says gratitude, love and forgiveness are choices available in any circumstance.
- He describes values as something shown through behavior, not just stated.
- Hal says we are free to think, feel and experience whatever we choose to experience.
Please enjoy my conversation with Hal Elrod.
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Watch The Miracle Morning on Next Level Soul TV Not Ready Yet? Hear the Full Conversation With Hal
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Hal Elrod?
Hal Elrod is the guest on this Divine Encounters episode. He was a Cutco salesman and aspiring speaker when, he says, a drunk driver hit him head on at 70 miles an hour at age 20.
What happened to Hal Elrod in the car crash?
Hal says a drunk driver hit him head on, then a second car broadsided his door at 70 miles an hour. He says he broke 11 bones, including his femur, pelvis and humerus, and that his heart stopped for six minutes.
Did Hal Elrod have a near-death experience?
Hal says he was clinically dead for six minutes and spent six days in a coma, but in this conversation he does not describe an afterlife or a light. He has no memory of the crash itself or the two weeks around it.
How long was Hal Elrod clinically dead?
Hal says his heart stopped for about six minutes after rescuers freed him from the car, and that he flatlined twice more during the following days in the coma.
Why did the doctors think Hal was in denial?
Hal says he was happy and positive in the hospital and joked with the staff. The doctors told his parents he was not facing reality and was delusional. Hal says he had already decided to be at peace with whatever reality came.
When did Hal Elrod walk again?
Hal says he took his first step three weeks after the crash, with his physical therapist Bob and the parallel bars. He says he left the hospital about four weeks after that.
How did Hal respond to the drunk driver?
Hal says he felt zero anger. He asked the court for six months in prison and two and a half years of speaking at schools. He says the judge gave the full sentence, and he never followed up.
What is the five minute rule?
Hal says it is a rule he lives by: he accepts life before it even happens. He says he used it when a doctor gave him his cancer diagnosis, and felt peace right away.
What did Hal learn from cancer?
Hal says he realized he only thought he put family first. He then changed his habits, taking his children to school, picking them up and spending real time with them.
What does Hal Elrod suggest for painful emotions?
Hal suggests writing the difficult emotions down, closing the book and letting them lie there. He also says to accept what you cannot change, be at peace with reality and choose freedom.
Is this a medical or spiritual claim?
Next Level Soul shares these accounts as lived experiences in the guest’s own words. Nothing here is medical advice, and Hal’s story is not offered as proof of anything.
Keep Exploring
- The complete guide to near-death experiences
- What a near-death experience is
- The dark night of the soul explained
- Anita Moorjani on cancer and a near-death experience
- Dean Braxton on being clinically dead for 105 minutes
- Gary Wimmer after being struck by a car
- Felice DiMartino after being struck by a truck
- Peter Panagore on losing faith after a near-death experience
- Browse more free masterclasses and the Divine Encounters podcast.
Follow Along with the Transcript
Alex Ferrari 0:00
Tell me, what your life was like before you died.
Hal Elrod 0:08
I had given a speech that night at a Cutco sales conference, that was my career. I was in Cutco, and a year and a half, Cutco makes high-quality kitchen knives. They've been around for 5060 years now, probably. I think it was the 50th anniversary was the year that I started, and so I gave a speech at the conference, and then I was driving home, and my car was head on by a drunk driver at 70 miles an hour, and then I actually, the worst, you know, airbags exploded, the worst was actually I spun off the drunk driver, and the car behind me broadsided me, T-boned me at 70 miles an hour in my door, and the entire on my door, and so it crushed the left side of my body, and I broke 11 bones on my leg, my femur, the biggest bone in the mid body, broke in half, my pelvis broke in three places, it was crushed between the center console, my arm broke in half, this one, my humerus bone broke in two pieces, shattered my elbow, severed my radial nerve, shattered the three bones in my eye socket, my ear was almost completely severed, and the top of the ceiling buckled, and the metal came through the roof, and it sliced a big, like a V in the top of my head. So, and I was immediately.. I mean, I would imagine I was in a coma. So, when they found me, I was in a coma. I'd imagine it's like exactly.. I've done a little bit of research, like the body will shut itself down and put you in a coma if you can't withstand the amount of pain you know that you're experiencing. Yeah. Thank God, thank God I wasn't awake. I can't even imagine that. I don't remember. So, there's two weeks of my life that I don't remember. I don't remember, like, my last memory is getting on the freeway that night, and the accident happened. I don't remember the accident. Don't remember the headlights coming at me, none of that. And then my first memory, I was in a coma, for so my heart stopped for six minutes. I was clinically dead for six minutes, and I didn't die until they pulled me out of the car, like the car was keeping me alive, all the pressure, but I was losing blood, though, you know, through all these, I mean, just holes in my leg, my arm, and, and when I, when they pulled me out, it took them an hour to cut the roof off the car and pull the door back to get me out, the jaws of life they had to use, and when they finally did, I bled to death, and my heart was, they said, about six minutes that I didn't have a heartbeat, and they immediately were pumping blood. I was put on a helicopter, and they are using defibrillators and all the things to get me back to life. And thank God they didn't give up after five minutes, because six minutes later I, they got my heart beating again, and I spent six days in a coma, I flatlined twice more, so I was, I was, you know, nearly died multiple times. And when I came out of the coma, I faced this unimaginable reality, like, you know, wait, where am I? What's going on? And they're like, "Hal, you broke 11 bones, you're probably never going to walk again, you have permanent brain damage. And this was this unimaginable reality that nobody thinks, you know they're ever gonna have to face for me. I try to make it applicable for all of us. That's just how I, I think, at that time I started thinking, how does this experience, how is this going to serve me, and how is it going to serve other people? That was the question in my mind.
Hal Elrod 2:55
And I told my dad, I said, "Dad, because he actually, the doctors thought I was in denial, because I was so happy and positive, like I'm in the hospital being told I'm never gonna walk again, and I'm totally happy, totally positive, genuinely, and like, and I'm making jokes and making the doctors laugh, and they called my parents in one day and they said, we're concerned with your son, we believe Hal is not facing reality, and he's just delusional and in denial, and we need you to talk to him, and so this is one week after the crash that this conversation, my dad comes in, he goes, 'Hey, I just met with the doctors. They're a little bit concerned with how you're responding to the accident, and you know they said you should be sad, scared, angry, and depressed, but you're not showing any of that, and they think you're in denial. Yeah, and how are you really feeling? How, when the lights go out at night, when there's no friends visiting, and you guys are joking and laughing, and he said, "Are you sad, scared, angry, or depressed? And I really, you know, I'm looking at my dad, by the way, and he's like, "You know, eyes are red, he's holding.. he was probably just crying, or he's trying not to cry. I mean, yeah, and it had been.. it had been a week of just, right, of him, of them by my bedside, not knowing if I was gonna live or die, where.. oh, he flat, he's flat lining again, doctors come in, come in. He's flatlining again, right? So, yeah, my poor parents. Oh my god. And I was the second child that they would have lost. My sister died when my mom was.. when I was eight years old. My 18 month old baby sister, on a Saturday morning, I woke up to my mother screaming, "My baby, my baby, God, don't take my baby. And it was just me, my mom, and my baby sister at home. My other sister was gone. My dad was at work, and I ran across the hall, and my mom was my little 18 month old baby sister. My mom was pushing on her chest and breathing into her mouth and performing mouth to mouth, performing CPR on her, and she died that morning. And within six months, my mother was leading a support group for other parents who had lost children. So, like, at eight years old, that seed was planted, that oh, you take your adversity and you use it to help other people, you take your pain and you find purpose. So, when I came out of the coma, that was like immediately implanted in me, and when my dad came in that day, and he said, "The doctors are concerned, Hal, I said, "Dad, I'm not depressed, I'm not sad, I'm a little. I mean, a little scared of that. I don't walk again, but I've already decided, Dad, I've already literally imagined if I never walk again, I've decided I'll be the happiest, most grateful person that you've ever seen in a wheelchair, because that becomes my reality, and I will not let my unchangeable reality determine my mental and emotional well-being. Like, if I can't change it, I'm going to be at peace with it, I'm going to find the gratitude and the love and the joy and the experience, and my dad, and, oh, and the last thing I said, my dad is, I said, "Dad, Dad, I've ever since I started selling Cutco, I've been speaking at all of these Cutco events, I've had this dream of, you know, being like a motivational speaker, like a Tony Robbins or something. I said, "But I've had a relatively easy life, like a normal life. Yeah, I was bullied, and you know, but I've never had anything like remarkable happen that I had to overcome. I'm actually taking that as that's why I'm going through this. I'm supposed to get through this accident in the most positive, proactive way. I'm supposed to learn and grow from it, so I can go share it with other people and teach other people.
Hal Elrod 5:57
And he went back to the doctors, and I think they thought I was even more delusional when he reported back, like, oh man, your son's really out there, they said I'd be there for a year and I'd never walk again. I took my first step three weeks after the crash, so one week after the doctors told my called my parents in and said, we think Cal is delusional, he's all happy and positive, and he needs to face reality, you know, he's probably gonna be in a wheelchair the rest of his life, and I told my dad, you know, if that's the case, I'm at peace, but that's not where my energy is going. My energy is going into walking with unwavering faith. A week later, the doctors come in with a clipboard, and they've got.. they go, "We're looking at these routine X-rays that we took this morning. How you're ready to take your first step? And even for me, I was thinking that was a year off. Even my optimism and my unwavering faith was like, "The body can heal, you know? And they say, "I'm in the hospital for a year. By the end of that year I'm going to be walking again, and three weeks after I was found dead at the scene, broke 11 bones. Two weeks after I came out of the coma, yeah, and I've got, you know, metal rod in my arms, screws in my elbow, plates in my eye, rod in my leg. I mean, it is crazy how fast it happened, and they come in and they get in a wheelchair, and my therapist, Bob, my physical therapist, we walk into the, the, you know, the therapy room, and there's these parallel bars. Now, I couldn't even use my left hand because I had broken my left hand. I had severed the nerve, so this was the amount of motion I had for six months that they never knew if it would come back. So that's also the thing I'm thinking about that I'm dealing with, is like I don't even have a left hand to use, plus I might never walk, and that five minute rule was like that powerful, be like, well, if this is how my hand is the rest of my life, this is how my hand isn't, but thank God my dad took a picture, because we have a picture, I show it when I give speeches, you know, in my keynote, it's like there's the, he has a picture of the car, looks like half of a car, because that side impact, and then there's a picture of me with tubes coming out of everywhere, and oxygen in my arm, you know, with rods in it, all that, then he has a picture of me taking that first step, you know, and I, he, Bob rolled me up in the wheelchair, and I took my first step, and, and that was the first step, where I was like, okay, if I can do this, I can do anything, and then it just, it just, I was out of the hospital four weeks later, very soon after I got out of the hospital, I went to court to, they had the hearing for the drunk driver that hit me head on, and I was asked in the hospital, like, "Oh, you must want to kill that guy. I said, "No, and you know, I don't.. this, it's got to be a god thing. I don't know at 20 where this perspective came from, but.. but I said, I said no. I said he's a 31 year old guy that drank a few beers at a bar and then got in a car to go home. Why would I be angry at him for any of those things, raise your hand if you've never drank alcohol and gotten a car to drive. I had, you know, in my, in high school, I'd go to parties, have some beers, think, yeah, find a, you know, make bad decisions, but it's like I wasn't an evil person because I did that, I just was an immature, it's a bad decision. This guy was 31 years old, married, he had a young, like a three year old kid, and so I had zero anger toward him. I had zero anger toward him.
Hal Elrod 8:44
And when I went to the trial, what before the trial, my parents, because I had my brain damage, I was slurring my speech. It was hard for me to even talk, you know, and formulate thoughts. My memory was bad, and so my parents said, "Hey, we'll speak for you, you know. Do you want to speak? I said, "No, I don't. I'm not ready to get up in front of a bunch of people and talk right now, and they said, 'We'll speak for you. What, what do you want? And I guess the attorney had sat down with them and say, 'Hey, like, and so, and there was like a civil, and a, you know, and so, but so my spirits po, they said, 'We've talked to hell, and he is asking that the, that, because they wanted him to spend three years in prison, and my thought is he's gonna be the like his kids without a dad for three years, that sucks, you know. And again, he just made a mistake, he didn't try to hurt me. So my request, I talked, and I'm parents kind of helped, like, what do you think, Hal, and you know, here's some ideas, and what we requested is that he get six months in prison, because I thought he definitely should have that time to ponder, think, reflect, right, but not three years, like six months is plenty of time. And then I asked that the rest of the sentence, that they, the court was proposing, three years, that he had to spend two and a half years speaking at schools, sharing what happened to him, to try to actually make a positive impact, because he's not making a positive impact, sitting in court in prison. So that's what my pay. Earns requested on my behalf, and the judge just was, I don't know, lazy. He's like, I'm not gonna do this creative sentence. We don't like three year, and he just gave him the full sentence. But that was my request, was that, you know, and I never followed it, like I, again, no ill will, and I never followed up to, I don't know if he served three years, I don't know if he served, I don't know that point. I read, you know, it's like, hey, I, you know, I'm at peace. I forgive. There's no hard feelings until I went through cancer and faced losing my kid, or you know, losing my life and not being around for my kids. And then through chemo, and you know, just sleepless nights, and being close to death again, and being awake for all of it. And that wasn't until I really went through the dark night of the soul, that was in 2020 for me started at the end of 2019 Being of 2020 was a six month period of depression and wanting to die and not sleeping for more than two to four hours a night, every single night. So my one night I woke up struggling to breathe. I went to the ER and they drained almost two liters of fluid from my lung. No, I mean it was, it was wild. They stuck a needle in the back of my, through my, you know, spine and drunk. I go home, and they said, "Hey, we think you have pneumonia. What I forgot, what they said, that was, they said, "If it doesn't get better, you know, come back. They give me antibiotics, and then, like, a day and a half, two days later, I can't breathe again. Go in, this went on for, like, I think it was 11 days, and they couldn't figure out what was wrong, and they're sending me to different hospitals, and this and that, and finally they diagnosed me this rare, aggressive form of cancer, and my wife was terrified and distraught. I remember, though, when I got diagnosed, the doctor was, he goes, 'Hal, I want you to come in and get the results, and he goes, 'Well, there's definitely something here, we're seeing some, and he's like beating around the bush, like he can't get himself to tell me, and I lean over, I lean over, I have my hand, he was a new doctor, I just moved to Texas, like two months before, and my hand on his arm, I go, 'Hey, Doc, I get..
Hal Elrod 11:43
I go, I can tell you're wrestling with whatever you're gonna tell me. I don't know what it is. I said, 'But I live by this thing called.. I'm not kidding, the five minute rule. I accept life before it even happens. Whatever you're gonna tell me, I'm already at peace with it. He goes, and he kind of breathed this. He goes, 'Okay. He goes, 'How? It looks like you have cancer. And yeah, I go, 'Oh, I didn't expect, you know, like, like, I'm like, what? No, because I thought I was healthy, and you know, and so I'm like, what, and I'm like, okay, dog, what are we gonna do? I am at peace with it. So it was instantaneous peace, and there were definitely moments in prayer, like, God, what am I supposed to learn from this? I thought I've learned all the lessons from the car accident, what else could I learn? Yeah, and it was like a lot, I just kept getting a lot, like a lot to learn, and the biggest thing, lesson I learned is that I thought I valued family first, because if you would have said what's most important in your life, I would have said my wife and kids, no questions asked. And so that's the shift, and now it's waking my kids up in the morning with a puppet show. I did that for so many years until they started, we're done with a puppet show, putting them to bed, reading stories, like when I went through my cancer journey, I immediately shifted my behavior, taking them to school, picking them up from school, like to spend time with my family. Give yourself permission to take a break from all of the painful, detrimental, difficult emotions that maybe you're experiencing that aren't serving you. Put them in a book, put them in writing, close the book, and let those emotions lie there, and just be free, you are free. That's last thing I would say is to realize you're free. You're free to think, feel, and experience whatever you choose to experience. So, accept what you can't change, be at peace with reality, journal the things that you are feeling, let them go, put them in writing, and then choose freedom. Choose to be free to experience love, joy, peace, gratitude, forgiveness, whatever you need to to heal in this moment, and you'll eventually keep doing that every day, and life will be different in the future than it is now, in a good way.
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