Sunday, February 6, 2011

Daughters and Sons

As I embark on a new adventure, having a soon to be teenager, I can't help but reflect on where the time went and whether or not I paused enough along the way to enjoy the little moments before she grew into this young woman today. Did I listen to her enough? Did I hug, love, kiss, smell her enough? Now she's "too old" for all that and I have to dig deep into my memories for those sensations and smells.

Is it, however, too late? No. I'm so grateful for these children. For the sounds [please translate as noise] they make; for the arguments I have to help resolve; for the bonds they share with one another and with me; for the love they have shown me; for the grace they show others. For being in my life and allowing me to be their guide.

My entry today is long overdue and may seem short, but there isn't more that I can add to a simple thought...and that is treasure every moment, sound, smell, and touch. Take the time to listen and to love unconditionally. Nothing in life is as important as your children and loved ones...everything else can wait because God knows and has shown, time does not stop.

Enjoy your children's adventures and make them your own; who knows, it may keep us young too!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Dash

Tonight a friend forwarded a link to me that I found quite poignant. It was about a person giving a friend's eulogy and referring to the person's birth and death dates as important, but not as significant as the "dash" in the middle.

It is so true...how do we want to be remembered? What do we want to accomplish during our brief time on this earth? What are we "dashing" through life for when in the end it is how we lived and how we set examples, showed loved, showered affection, bestowed kindness that mattered...it is that "dash" on our tombstones that signifies a life's efforts.

With the embarking of this New Year, I have had so much to think about and so much to be grateful for; in the brief few weeks of this New Year I have seen a friend survive a stroke and thanked God for her miraculous ability to heal and to heal those of us around her. I told her, "you dodged a bullet!" In reality, however, her "wake-up call" was for all those who surrounded her. I am so grateful that her "dash" is still just a dash and that there is not date to follow it...and I pray there won't be one for a very very long time. I pray that her moment of pause and reflection stays with not just her but us all. Whether you are raising children or have seen them grow; or if you have no children, but care for friends and loved ones...to take a moment and realize that this life is precariously brief and preciously so.

Stop, don't dash through life...live and live well so that when your loved one(s) are saying your eulogy they can refer to the dates between your birth and death...to that "dash" as a gift to not just them as your friends, companions, husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, but to humanity as a whole.

May you all live long, happy, healthy, loving and productive lives.

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I am a mother to four beautiful children who have taught me more than I believe I have taught them; they have also been the inspiration to the products I have developed to help pregnant and nursing moms.