The last couple of weeks (OK who am I kidding the last couple of months) have been a roller coaster like mix of tragedies, victories, death, heartbreak, love, and loss. I am generally the type of person that tries to hold only to the positive things and focus on forward motion only, but this time around I caved to the stress and pain and confusion and anger and let it make me look back instead of keeping my eyes focused where they should have been. As I’ve come up for air this week and looked around one thing was almost annoyingly glaringly obvious. As much as I wanted to curl up and ignore the world or get lost for a while in the sadness of events or frustration of not being able to help or heal those that I love so dearly:
Life has gone on.
Unforgivingly, unapologetically, minute by minute, hour by hour, it waited for no one.
Like a freight train barreling down the tracks,
it just kept going whether I liked it or not and I was left trying to catch up.
The world lost some truly amazing people recently, but life didn’t slow down or pause. What I was failing to notice until now was that in the midst of the loss, conflict, and death, I was also being blessed with new lives, new experiences, new friends, new lessons, and new opportunities. Not the ones I thought I wanted. Better, the ones I needed. Oh how many unforgiving minutes I wasted! I should have been celebrating and appreciating.
I couple of years ago I found this in a book of poetry and it stuck with me. I’ve posted it numerous places and read it to my boys, and will continue to share it with them as they grow older. It popped up on my reading list again this week, not a coincidence I am sure. Words I desire to live by, and a reminder of keeping focused on what is truly important in life. Our time here is so short and I know sometimes we forget to look at the bigger picture.
Lately I just see certain people and mentally I scream: “You could die tomorrow! If you do, would all this bullshit really have been worth it?!” So I just wanted to share because although it was written for a son, it is universal in its message.
“If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!”
– Rudyard Kipling
Big life changes coming. Ready or not!
On that note I leave you with this weeks images of my life’s leading example of how to make the most of things. My two year old. Who while being put in time out in a quiet corner, will make the most of things and dance with his shadow. He is a master at filling the unforgiving minute. The only child I know who in a single moment can turn being in trouble into: “I sorry mama! Come dance!”. He’s got the right idea.
I pray He always attacks life with this much energy, joy, creativity, forgiveness, and lightness of heart.
