I heard a song on the radio the other day, and I have no idea who sings it or what the title is (music gurus, do you have any idea?), but a line in it struck me so hard: "a life that's not lived is still lost." Those lyrics are so beautiful and strong, they made me think of so many, many things -- one of them is about waiting. I feel like I wait a lot of my life for things. I'm waiting for the kids to get dressed, waiting for them to finish eating, waiting for them to go to bed, waiting for the new baby to get here, waiting for the train, waiting for Joel to dig up the garden (thanks, honey!). And I feel like all that waiting around is wasting my precious time! This life is so, so short in the end -- eternity is so long! -- that there's just not time to wait around. If I'm just sitting around waiting for things to happen, I'm not really LIVING my life. Who wants that? I've decided to really make sure I'm living my life -- not just wait for things to happen, but to make them happen. There are so many fun things to do -- I'm getting ideas right now! While the kids are eating, we can talk about their little interesting lives. While I'm waiting for the train, we could play a game or tell a silly story. While they're getting ready for bed... well, maybe I'll have to wait for a few things, after all.
How about it, folks? Are we going to live our lives, or lose them?
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7 comments:
WE ARE GOING TO LIVE OUR LIVES!! Wise words from a wise woman, Natalie! It reminds me of a scripture in the Book of Mormon: "And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good and evil; TO ACT FOR THEMSELVES AND NOT TO BE ACTED UPON" (2 Nephi 2:26). We are meant to make things happen rather than letting things happen to us. I need to reevaluate the way I spend my time, because I too do a lot of waiting around! Thanks for the inspiration!
It is nice when you have something planned and to do in your spare moments besides those things that your duties dictate. However, also remember that old saying, "Life is what happens to you when you are planning other things." I know I look back on our time when our children were young and I think "I would have that time again if I could."
I completely ditto Dad's comment. Each day seems so much the same, when the children are young, but I'd love to live just one of those days again and really observe and remember. There is good in waiting if it includes observing and making memories, as corny as that sounds!
That's exactly what I mean -- that life is too precious to just sit around and WAIT -- that I need to be more involved with my kids while we're waiting for other things to happen. There's so much learning that can happen when we just TALK to one another! I think it's important to remember that life doesn't just happen to us -- we ARE masters of our fate in a lot of ways!
I like reminders like this. In those times I've taken this advice to heart I've really enjoyed my children. If only I could remember more often!
I remember when Parker was still an infant and I was giving him a bottle. He had been crying and as soon as I put the bottle in his mouth, he stopped. But then he looked up at me and just stared at me the whole time with those big blue eyes, tears on his cheeks. I sometimes long for those days again, even though I am proud of how he has grown. They are getting old!
I know it seems a little weird for me to come back and make another comment here, but I've been thinking about what you said about living our lives. Of course there's lots of it we can't live the way we want, but there is some we can. When we are young and married we can get wrapped up in raising our family to the exclusion of all else. When we are old and married we can get wrapped up in enduring to the end to the exclusion of all else. Thanks for the poke of inspiration to get me off dead center.
--Your other dad.
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