So... with everything that has been going on lately, I've found myself thinking about forever. A lot. Forever friends, forever family, the brevity of life and the depth of it... what it all means when you get down to it. It's hard not to think about things like that when you're staring it in the face, and it seems to be something that keeps popping up in my world these days from all different directions.
I think about a LOT of things when I think about them in forever terms. But mostly I think about the fact that if my forever was up tomorrow, I want to be sure that my life meant something. Because really, what's the point of taking all of these trips around the sun if you haven't created something or done something that's going to last once you're gone, you know?
Become a world famous painter, write a song so beautiful it makes people cry, travel the world, find a cure for cancer... Those are the big things that people can leave behind. But just as important are the little things that happen in the middle of it all. Teaching a child how to be kind, making sacrifices for the people you love, giving someone in pain a reason to smile, laughing with good friends over homemade dinner and a bottle of wine. It's like they say, "When it's all said and done, it's not about the years in your life that matter the most, it's the life in your years." Or something like that.
It's such a shame that some people can go an entire lifetime without truly appreciating, or enjoying, anything at all. Without knowing what it truly feels like to love another person. Without finding pleasure in books or movies or fine wine. Something as simple as sitting on a porch and listening to the birds can make a normal day great. But I have come to the realization that there are some people who will go through an entire lifetime without choosing to find joy in anything. It seems like such a waste, you know? There are people in the world counting down the rest of their forever in terms of minutes instead of years, while others have wasted an entire lifetime without ever actually living a single moment of it.
There's never going to be an answer on why some forevers get to be so much longer than others. And it's difficult to wrap your head around it when the people you love are told they're running out of time. It doesn't seem fair. For any one of us, our forever could end in an hour, or a month, or a hundred years from now. There's really no telling when our time is up.
The only truth about forever that really counts, is that it's happening right now.
And that has to be enough, because it's really all we have for certain. At the end of the day, I think it all comes down to the fact that life is what you make it. There are so many reasons and things and people that exist in the world that can make it easy to bring us down. But some of the strongest and most wonderful people I know are the ones who refuse to let pain and bitterness and hatred and bad news bring them down. Those are the people to celebrate, and model our own lives after. Whether you're here for a few more days or months or you get to take another 65 trips around the sun, you control how you see the world. And ultimately, how you leave it. Because it's a choice. So many people don't have the opportunity to grow old and experience the world and have a family and friends who love them. The least we can do as the lucky ones is grab life by the horns and leave something good behind when we go.
I think about a LOT of things when I think about them in forever terms. But mostly I think about the fact that if my forever was up tomorrow, I want to be sure that my life meant something. Because really, what's the point of taking all of these trips around the sun if you haven't created something or done something that's going to last once you're gone, you know?
Become a world famous painter, write a song so beautiful it makes people cry, travel the world, find a cure for cancer... Those are the big things that people can leave behind. But just as important are the little things that happen in the middle of it all. Teaching a child how to be kind, making sacrifices for the people you love, giving someone in pain a reason to smile, laughing with good friends over homemade dinner and a bottle of wine. It's like they say, "When it's all said and done, it's not about the years in your life that matter the most, it's the life in your years." Or something like that.
It's such a shame that some people can go an entire lifetime without truly appreciating, or enjoying, anything at all. Without knowing what it truly feels like to love another person. Without finding pleasure in books or movies or fine wine. Something as simple as sitting on a porch and listening to the birds can make a normal day great. But I have come to the realization that there are some people who will go through an entire lifetime without choosing to find joy in anything. It seems like such a waste, you know? There are people in the world counting down the rest of their forever in terms of minutes instead of years, while others have wasted an entire lifetime without ever actually living a single moment of it.
There's never going to be an answer on why some forevers get to be so much longer than others. And it's difficult to wrap your head around it when the people you love are told they're running out of time. It doesn't seem fair. For any one of us, our forever could end in an hour, or a month, or a hundred years from now. There's really no telling when our time is up.
The only truth about forever that really counts, is that it's happening right now.
And that has to be enough, because it's really all we have for certain. At the end of the day, I think it all comes down to the fact that life is what you make it. There are so many reasons and things and people that exist in the world that can make it easy to bring us down. But some of the strongest and most wonderful people I know are the ones who refuse to let pain and bitterness and hatred and bad news bring them down. Those are the people to celebrate, and model our own lives after. Whether you're here for a few more days or months or you get to take another 65 trips around the sun, you control how you see the world. And ultimately, how you leave it. Because it's a choice. So many people don't have the opportunity to grow old and experience the world and have a family and friends who love them. The least we can do as the lucky ones is grab life by the horns and leave something good behind when we go.
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| St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands | Photo courtesy of Claire McElheny (Thanks sister!) |
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