A Practical Walk

After the death of a mentor, my Grandpa, my husband’s Grandpa, and a friend in Africa’s husband, death has been on my mind. But actually more than death, life has been on my mind. Because at someone’s death, we reflect on their life.

We might imagine that their last words were important. Or want to know how they spent their last days on earth, but really what is usually the most impactful are all the moments leading up to that.

How did they spend their life on a dialy basis? Did they...

Speak kindly to children

listen to others without interrupting

discuss even the hard things

provide daily for their children

apologize when they did wrong

Or did they…

constantly complain

make excuses for their bad behavior

belittle others

choose laziness instead of helping others

I think of my life as having big grandiose moments: the day I got married, the day I gave birth, the day we adopted, the day we flew to our first African country. Sure all these were good things. But the minuscule moments also count: the moments I snap at my kids unnecessarily, the moments I interrupt my husband, the moments I go straight to complaining instead of praying. Every little moment, good or bad is making up my life right now. Every moment I have a choice of how I live, and who I live for.

This shell used to sit at my Grandma and Grandpa’s house. I remember putting it up to me year to hear the ocean. One of many, many good memories at their house!