Sunday, August 18, 2013

Seizing the Moment - Revisited

Good Sunday Morning to you!!

Or good day, evening, or night to you, and may you have a peaceful and pleasant day, evening or night, wherever you may be!

This morning I find myself very thankful for my family, my friends, and all those who fill my life with love, friendship, smiles, laughter, and yes, even anxiety, confrontation and conflict. How about you?

What would I do without the love I am lavishly and freely given from my family?  How bored and lonely would I be without the invaluable encouragement and acceptance from my wonderful friends?  How simple minded and dull would I and my brain be without the anxiety, confrontation and conflict I am rewarded with from my daughter (sorry Tiffany) husband (sorry again Honey) and family and friends who 
sometimes heatedly sport different religious, social, and political views? 

Yet, for me, it takes each of these crazy emotions and unique people to make my life interesting, rewarding, and livable.  A huge, from-the-bottom-of-my-heart, hug-wrapped thank you to each of you for so beautifully enriching my life! I am grateful and thankful for each of you!

Now, what brought me to these thoughts? This is what’s heavy on my heart this morning;
Our country has, and continues to suffer devastating and unthinkable tragedies and losses, provoking many emotions and reactions from all of us.  Yet one fact I can’t help seeing through it all is that
life is fragile.
I just don't think we can, nor should we take anything or anyone in our lives 
for granted.
What do you think?
Instead, I believe we must take and run with every moment given, 
with every loved one in our lives,
as well as those we simply meet by chance.
Agree?

I would invite and encourage each of you to think about the relationships in your lives;
family, friends, loved ones, or casual acquaintances.
How do they enrich your life?
What would you miss if they were no longer in your life?
Are your quarrels with them really that important?
How long has it been since you told them that you loved them
Or that they are important to you?
Have you ever told them?
My friends – don’t wait any longer.

Seize the moment ! 
for you don’t know when you might have another.

One of my greatest regrets in life is that I did not take the opportunity to tell my son one last time that Momma loves him, on the morning of the day he was tragically taken from me in a terrible school bus accident when he was just 9 years old.  It was a normal day, like any other day.  The last thing I ever expected was that a semi-truck would hit my son’s school bus, or that I would never get to hug or hold my baby boy again.  

Many of you have similar stories and share a similar engulfing grief.
This I know.
And I grieve with you as I lift you up and pray for you.

This I also know – The loss of a loved one, especially a child, is a lifetime loss, one that no one “gets over.”  It is an empty feeling, an empty spot that is always there – no, it never goes away.  Rather it is a feeling that, over time, you simply get used to feeling.

However, over time, this feeling does lessen; you can learn to live with it.

(For those of you who have not experienced this type of deep grief and loss – that is what it is like.  It takes great compassion from those around one to care for them in deep grief.  Please see my post Grief to learn more about grief feelings and how to respond to one grieving.

There is a Scripture – Psalm 30:5, which says;
Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

And very true it is.  We weep for a time – yes, it may be a dark and mournful time where we pour out all our anguish and desperation. And after we are spent and empty, the dark begins to turn to grey, the grey to pale light, then amazingly the pale light to the sunshine of morning and a new day.  And we find a tiny spark of wanting to go on, beginning in our hearts, and the desire to see and feel the sunshine once again.

The timing of this darkness is different for all of us; for some – weeks; some – months; for some it is years.  Some of us need more help wading through the layers than others.  But one thing is certain;

We all need to know that our sorrow matters;
We all need to know that someone else out there cares that we are hurting.

And along the same lines – no matter what is going on in our lives, we all need to know that there is someone else out there who cares about us and what is going on in lives.  We all need to know that we matter to someone else. 

So my thought and prayer for today is that each of you will contemplate the relationships in your life and have the courage to reach out and 
take advantage of every single moment given to you, 
to grow and enrich those relationships,
and to enrich the lives of those around you, 
by your sincere caring of and for them.  
And to give generously, from your hearts to those who are hurting around you. 
Will you show someone that you care today?
Won’t you reach out and make a difference?

With much love, prayers and gratitude for each of you,

Mindy

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