It’s I write this I’m sitting in my backyard with my four daughters and the dog, humming the Stevie Wonder classic Don’t You Worry ’bout a Thing… Meanwhile in the background the girls are tackling each other to the ground in a makeshift wrestling ring that I helped them create. So, make no mistake about it, when someone inevitably gets injured, I will be culpable. But that’s a story for another day. Today’s refection is courtesy of me learning not to worry about the things I can’t control, while appreciating the things I can.

There’s a quote that I love:

I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day. E. B. WHITE, New York Times, 1969

I struggle with this myself. As Monday hits, do I rush into the week, ready to attack the day as the Georgia Bulldogs coach says? (It’s like life is a war and each day is a battle!). Sometimes it feels like that. Especially when you’ve got a lot going on, you’re in the throes of raising a family, build a career, change the world, etc. But then, who wants to live like that? I mean really, is a perpetual war even sustainable?

But then I stumble across moments like this weekend, that remind me just how precious life is. My wife and I traveled home to Baltimore to join our friends in honoring the life of their mom, who had impacted so many lives including our own. Nearly 18 years ago at our wedding when we were young and barely knew anything about anything, she offered words of wisdom to start us on our journey. The truth is, it was her and her husband’s model of consistency in love through their own marriage that impacted us the most. Hearing the tributes and reading about all the people she impacted, we realized that we weren’t alone. She changed so many lives, including our own, and for that we’re forever grateful.

You never know when a moment will imprint on someone. You never know how you might change the course of a life or even a generation of lives by just being you and being present. And you never know how those moments, add up over time. All we can do is be available, and intentional.

SDW3