#22 St. Louis, MO
"Life has an end and we are all in transit." -Lailah Akita
Throughout the last year, my theme song has been “I lived” by the One Republic. Since I don’t want to take up my entire 23rd blog laying out the fine print for you, this song really hits home for me. When I began these trips I needed them. I was still recovering from a pretty cruel breakup, I had yet mourned the loss of my grandfather, I was in a place I didn’t want to be, stressed out but still so content. It was almost as if I was sitting in the grasp of financial security with such a low level of happiness. This isn’t to say that I was living a miserable and terrible life because I wasn’t. What I am saying is that for me, turning twenty-three was a crucial moment where I finally decided to stop putting my life on hold.
I met Deb in St. Louis, she was our limo driver during the winery tour that we embarked on for my sweet Lo’s bachelorette trip. The wineries in themselves were enough memories to last a life time but Deb impacted me.
Deb and I chatted about the surface facts for a while. What our families were like, how our faith was based, marriage or in my case plans for marriage. During this conversation, I learned that just two weeks prior to us meeting she was diagnosed with Kidney Failure.
Still driving the Limo service and the School Bus system not missing a bear. Meeting others and embracing their life was more important to her than slowing down. Which is something we should all strive to do.
I think that is what I loved most about this conversation. But, what struck a chord was her response to me when I asked: “so what’s your advice on the whole life thing.”
This was her response.
“Here is what you have to do. You have to do it all now. You need to keep breathing and enjoy life for every single second it is worth. It goes by very, very quick. Don’t pay any mind to people that bring negativity into your heart. We aren’t meant to live hard and fast. We are meant to live abundantly and love fast. Enjoy your time, make the memories and when that time begins to come to an end remember how great it has been. Hearing that you only have so long to live is a really scary thing. Sure, there are plenty of solutions out there for my kidney failure and I may be lucky enough to pull through longer than I plan. But, if I don’t I am headed out of this life with a full heart. I never intended to live forever and you can’t either. So enjoy it.”
I can’t put that in any better words. If I had to guess, if there was a secret to living a full life, that is probably it. How crucial it is for our legacy to not wait until we are dying to truly live.
