I borrowed this image from a sister of mine whom takes this spiritual journey with me. We now live hundreds of miles (almost 1700) away from each other, but I still connect with her and think of her every day. These aren't some steadfast rules that I have affixed myself to, but they are every bit true and have a lot of merit. Timeless advice and wisdom lies within these words.
There has been a lot of death in close circles lately. My fiance's aunt took her life about a month ago. My friend had to deliver her baby at 28 weeks due to eclampsia. She had a seizure and they took her off of life support about a week after delivering her baby. Her best friend then lost her husband trying to save a child that had drifted away from the boat - less than a week apart.That is a lot of death in one month. That is a lot of people hurting, feeling loss. That is a lot of lessons to be learned. These Rules for Being Human really resonated while I was thinking about all this death and loss.
I make a big to do about learning lessons. It happens to be something I try to be very cognizant of. My life, my person, my spirit has changed a lot over the past few years mostly because I took a harder look at myself and started dedicating myself to learning the lessons, not just acknowledging that they are lessons to be learned. We haven't every truly learned anything until we retain the knowledge of the lesson and apply it to similar situations every time. Just one slip up means that lesson has to be learned all over again. That there is a whole new painstaking process and suffering of consequences. I, for one, do not want to spend my life learning the same lesson. Knowledge is power, so the quicker the lesson is learned, the quicker the next one will come.
Everyone has their downfalls, their lessons to learn. The biggest one seems to be the number 6 rule here. Essentially it tells us to appreciate what we have and what surrounds us. It tells us to have gratitude. It is so easy to take the time that we have with people in our life for granted. We aren't given an eternity to right our wrongs or to express our love. We are given seconds, minutes, days, weeks, months, years and decades. While it may seem like a long time when it is stretched out, there is never enough time to show all the people that we love and care about just how deeply that runs. You never truly know how much time anyone has. We must make our here and now the best that it can possibly be. That is our task. I am not saying that we become short-sighted and only think of the now, but rather that we embrace the here and now with a resolve to improve where we can.
The hardest part about all of these deaths are the children left behind. I do my best to show all four children of the house how much they are loved - not just showering them with tangible, monetary gains (although anyone will attest that they want for nothing). We give them our time, our attention, our understanding and support. This is the biggest lesson of these tragedies for me - show your children love, give them worthwhile time. There is more to being a parent than mindlessly sitting in front of the tv or computer. Interact with them, converse and joke with them, teach them. Those are the best rewards that make our here and now a better future. Memories are some of the best lessons learned. Hug your children, kiss their foreheads, assure them a place of security. Show them that you have learned the lesson of appreciation for a child's love for their parent.
Love to you all ~ Andrea
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