We never know what tomorrow may bring us. Today we are healthy, we feel good and enjoy the life we have built after many years of working to secure that life. Our thoughts are set on slowing down to savor our grandchildren and reacquaint ourselves with the spouse we have known but possibly forgotten. We can now take those trips we have longed to take without the worry of catching up on the work load we left behind. No long hours of listening to voicemails or reading emails that have stacked up while we were away. Life is definitely gotten to a good place.
As we age and come out of the hectic and busy business world, we tend to make decisions slower than before. This may be because we don't have the time to recover from a bad or not thought out decision as we did when we were younger. We begin to look at life with a narrower perspective, seeing things as they are instead of how they could be. Little things become of importance as we live our everyday life. Reading the paper starts with the front page and quickly shifts to the obituaries to see if we recognize any names. We begin to think of people we knew in grammar and high school, people we have not seen or thought about in years. We attend a lot of funerals of people we have known throughout our life and weddings of our friends daughters and granddaughters. Reminiscing becomes a big part of our time and we question ourselves wondering if we could have done things different if the chance was given. Where did the time go? How did we miss so much?
Recently I was speaking to a man that told me he wanted to be remembered as a good man and a devoted Christian. It reminded me of a short story I once heard about a headstone on a grave. The markings on the stone was a birthdate. A dash, and a place for the death date. You life will be told and remembered in that DASH. When the day arrives and the final words are spoken over the shiny box that will house my old and wrinkles body I want that dash to tell the story of a man that loved his family, was a great husband, Dad, and Grandfather and a man of integrity. I want the world to know that I tried to live my life as a good Christian, striving to do the right thing even when no one was looking.
The only thing in life that is constant is change and change happens daily. Sometimes the change is difficult and hurts. It can break your heart as you watch the results of that change affect the people around you. What we must keep in mind is that if you change then you can change again. Life is full of sentimentality which is good in its own right, but to dwell on the issue simply make matters linger and worse over the long haul. To wrap up the thoughts that brought on this thought, we need to cherish each and every moment we have in life. We or our loved ones can be gone in the blink of an eye and unspoken thoughts and words will forever be unspoken. Let's not think only of ourselves but what makes others in our life happy. It is not all about us but all about what we can do to leave a mark, a legacy for others to remember us by.
It's not what you take when
you leave this world behind you.
It's what you leave behind you when you go.
- Randy Travis
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