What matters

Happy Sunday everyone,

How are you all doing on this fine Sunday afternoon? All is well here. Went to a Chinese New Year’s party last night and we saw so many wonderful friends. It warms my heart to be surrounded by so many wonderful people.

Our Saturday started out on such a positive note. We met Johns parents for a late breakfast, then we came home. John did his 4 mile run/walk, my nieces all stopped over, then off to the party we went. A busy day, but a day that goes into our book of memories.

This week I’ll be splitting my time between home in the lake and time in San Diego. I am looking forward to Thursday evening. I get to paint with some of my favorite gals. Can’t wait.

After spending time with family and friends over this weekend, I can’t help but reflect on how blessed I am. You know, every morning I find myself waking up and thanking God for my beautiful home, my family and my friends. My family, my friends and my home, that’s what truly matters in my life. Oh, and of course, I can’t forget, Molly and Oreo are apart of my treasures too.

I am 55 years young and I am hoping I have another 40 years in me, but, you never know. Life can be taken away in a blink of an eye. Our world as we know it can change in a moments notice. Life isn’t guaranteed, thus, it’s a gift.

As I sit here and write to you today, I can’t help but think, I’m on the second half of my life and that seems so unreal. As we age, or as I age, I do think back on my life, some of the choices I’ve made and while I have little regret, I do have some. I regret the things I haven’t done that are on my bucket list. Funny, I’ve always had the desire to just jump in my car and drive with no destination in mind. I don’t want to be gone for a long time, but, I do want to experience some of the unknown and I want to see the uniqueness and beauty of each place I come upon. I love my lake life and I see us here forever, but I will never close the door for God’s plan for me, whatever that may be. I’ve learned to pray and, while I tell God I love my home, and I ask him to make being here possible, I also ask him to make it possible, if it be his will. We just never know what our creator has in store for us.

It’s true what they say, whoever they is, with age, comes wisdom. “Wisdom is with the aged, and understanding in length of days.”-Job 12:12. The longer we live, hopefully the wiser and smarter we become. “Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained in a righteous life.”-Proverbs 16:31. My hair is certainly gaining some gray highlights and I’m okay with that, I really am. It’s just apart of growing and it’s another day to be thankful for my life. When I look at the gray, I ask myself, should I dye it, or, maybe I just leave it. For now, it will remain and as I look back at myself in the mirror, I thank the Lord that I’ve been able to reach this point in life, because many don’t make it this far.

“On the day I die… a lot will happen. A lot will change. The world will be busy. On the day I die, all the important appointments I made will be left unattended. The many plans I had yet to complete will remain forever undone. The calendar that ruled so many of my days will now be irrelevant to me. All the material things I so chased an guarded and treasured will be left in the hands of other to care for or to discard. The words of my critics which so burdened me will cease to sting or capture anymore. They will be unable to touch me. The arguments I believed I’d won here will not serve me or bring me any satisfaction or solace. All my noisy incoming notifications and texts and calls will go unanswered. Their great urgency will be quieted. My many nagging regrets will all be resigned to the past, where they should always been anyway. Every superficial worry about my body that I ever labored over; about my waistline or hairline or frown lines, will fade away. My carefully crafted image, the one I worked so hard to shape for others here, will be left to them to complete anyway. The sterling reputation I once struggled so greatly to maintain will be of little concern for me anymore. All the small and large anxieties that stole sleep from me each night will be rendered powerless. The deep and towering mysteries about life and death that so consumed my mind will finally be clarified in a way that they could never be before while I lived. These things will certainly all be true on the day I die. Yet for as much as will happen on that day, one more thing will happen. On the day I die, the few people who really knew and truly loved me will grieve deeply. They will feel a void. They will feel cheated. They will not feel ready. They will feel as though a part of them has died as well. And on that day, more than anything in the world they will want more time with me. I know this from those I love and grieve over. And so knowing this, while I am still alive I’ll try to remember that my time with them is finite and fleeting and so very precious-and I’ll do my best not to waist a second of it. I’ll try not to squander a priceless moment worrying about all the other things that will happen on the day I die, because many of those things are either not my concern or beyond my control. Friends, those other things have an insidious way of keeping you from living even as you live; vying for your attention, competing for your affections. They rob you of the joy of this unrepeatable, uncontainable, ever-evaporating Now with those who love you and want only to share it with you. Don’t miss the chance to dance with them while you can. It’s easy to waste so much of daylight in the days before you die. Don’t let your life be stolen every day by all that you believe matters, because on the day you die, much of it simply won’t. Yes, you and I will die one day. But before that day come: let us live.”- John Pavlovitz.

Pretty powerful words. It’s a great way to put life into perspective. It’s time to live life and I hope along the way, we all love life too. Sure, we are all faced with challenges, but hopefully, those make us stronger, wiser. In this world in which we live, nothing is for certain, other than, we will die at some point. From the moment we take our first breath, our last one is most certain, yet I hope, between our first breath and our last, I pray we have the opportunity to live life to the fullest. Learn the most lessons and pass our wisdom onto those we leave behind. For me, I hope I leave behind a legacy of love. I hope those in my life will remember me fondly and I hope each and everyone of those in my life will know they are and were loved.

My dear readers, my prayer for today and for this blog, is that it challenges you to reflect on the things that are most important in your lives. I hope until next time, you Love Life++ hugs….