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Live Your Life

I met a most extraordinary child today. She is a delightful third grader who stole my heart with her smile and bright blue eyes.

We (her mother, grandmother, and siblings) sat on her grandmother's gorgeous wrap around porch taking in the gentle breeze blowing through the pine trees and palmettos. It's an old-Florida setting that makes me think of Majorie Kinnan Rawlings in the middle of the Florida scrub writing her novels. You cannot sit there without taking a deep breath and letting the heavy, late summer air soak into your skin and draw out your anxiety.

Hannah drew imaginary drawings with her fingertips in the round wooden table and told us that she cannot wait until she is an adult and a teacher. Her older sister cautioned her that she didn't want to grow up fast because that meant she had to pay bills. Without skipping a beat, Hannah looked up and said, "Yes, I do want to pay my bills and have a job because that means I'm living my life. You have to live your life."

And that's the moment she completely won me over.

I can so easily get caught up in the pressures and worries of my day to day life. We all do. Yet, getting up in the morning and going to work and washing my dishes and doing the laundry and even paying my bills are all part of my life. And I'm now grateful for them in an entirely new way.

This is my life. Every last inch of it. I'm determined to savor the moments and watch the experiences unfold. I'm certainly not there yet, but I'm getting closer. It's filled with beauty if I'm willing to accept it.

Comments

Christy said…
I love that girl too :)
Sometimes "living your life" is too much and you have to sit on a porch and breathe, but it's taking care of all the mundane stuff that gives us the freedom to do and be what we want.
8:04 AM
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