How Easily We Forget

Life is a blessing, a gift from God, a unique journey, one that only we can experience for ourselves. It can last for years or it can be taken in a moment, much too early. It's a journey that seems to start way too slow. We try to speed up that life so we can be......grown up. So we can  be an adult, doing the things we so long to do. Then when we become that adult, we want things to slow down. Life seems to be passing by way too fast.

For some of us, it's really....really hard to grasp how precious each and every day is. We constantly look forward to events in the future. Events that we just can't wait to experience. We'll go for days looking ahead, letting time slip by..... unnoticed.

Some of us are made aware of the limits of time and space when we hit an abrupt turn in the direction of our lives. Sometimes it's from the dreaded news of an illness, or cancer, or a devastating accident. It's in those moments, we become aware of the value of life. For some of us time screeches to a halt. For others, it's the motivation to take one day at a time and savor each moment, to really recognize the awesomeness of life. But as we overcome the obstacle and our health improves, we seem to forget what we've learned about living.

This comes from one who has experienced both. My twist in the road came eighteen years ago with the diagnoses of cancer. Surprisingly there was not a feeling of fear, even though I was given six months to a year. But the importance of living each moment and enjoying each breath was magnified ten fold. I learned to take each day and recognize it as a gift from God.

As the chemo, radiation and medication improved my health beyond all expectation, I caught myself slipping back into that old mindset. I started letting circumstances and trials consume me and diminish my ability to enjoy and savor life. It surprised me How Easily I Forgot.

So I look to remember, striving to regain that lifestyle of living life. You would think it wouldn't be that difficult, but at times it is. The world and all it's woes can zap the life out of us. We constantly look for the silver bullet that will get us back on track. Sometimes we try so hard to live, we forget how to live.

One answer I've found is to learn how to give. Buy giving of ourselves, our love, our time and talents, we learn to become a part of the world around us. We become a participant, not just a bystander.

One answer is in finding the Joy of the Lord as our Strength. By walking in his ways, we find a new purpose in life. We see so many who don't take that walk, live their lives just existing, finding little happiness and joy, watching the days go by with no reason or rhyme.

One answer is to realize that this too shall pass. We learn that things have a way of working out at times. We learn that when we are weak, He is Strong.

We find when we forget to live, we have to stop and take a breath, to put things back in perspective, and remember how important and happy life can be if we'll learn to let it.

None of us have all the answers. We have to find what works for us. But in giving and sharing, by walking in faith and seizing each moment, we can find what we've lost....and found....and lost again. If we open our eyes and our hearts and become a participant in the world we live in, we can renew the purpose, and spirit and life that we seek. We can live, however long or however short and know that life had meaning. That we lived with grace. That the door of opportunities and adventures and life were always open for us to walk through. And if we forget, we can lift our eyes up to heaven.....and learn again.


and the Journey Continues......