We need love to survive. It's a basic human need. I've read some stories recently of human beings who are not getting the love they need to survive, and it is tragic.
This year at Valentine's Day I'm appreciating our capacity to love a little bit more. Sometimes that means loving the ones who are closest to us, going out of our way to let them know we appreciate them. Other times it means reaching out and loving those who are further away, or those who are not as easy to love.
Someone said that in our houses many of us have two sets of dishes. There is a set of every day dishes that are chipped, worn, and mismatched. We knock them around, we use them hard. Then, there is a set of good dishes that we get out when company comes over. This set we give special treatment. We handle it with care, we make sure it doesn't get chipped. Sometimes we don't even allow it to go through the dishwasher, instead cleaning every piece lovingly by hand.
So I ask myself, how do I treat the people I'm closest to? Do I treat them like the every day dishes, or do I treat them like the fine china? It's too easy to treat the members of our families like the every day dishes. We don't tell them we appreciate them. We don't show them extra special love and care. Instead, we save our best treatment for the people we work with, go to school with, or go to church with.
I want to treat the people close to me like fine china. I want them to know how special and loved they are. Even though it's hard at the end of a long day, these people are the ones who mean the most to me, so I need to take extra special care of them.
This is one thing that Liza tought me as well. We didn't know how many days we had with her, so each day was a precious gift, a miracle. She helped us to cherish her, to cherish each other. She helped us to stay in the moment and appreciate the beauty of what was right in front of us.
That can be a little intimidating, at least to me, when I'm really honest with myself. One song I love talks about "the scary, scary beauty of what's right here." It can be hard to stay in the moment, to be present, to look around at the imperfection that surrounds us and say: this is beautiful. This day, this moment, is beautiful.
At Valentine's day this year, I want my loved ones to know that they are loved. Now is as good a time as any to give that fine china the loving care that it is due.
1 comment:
Mandy, the candy hearts photo you selected is beautiful and poignant. It says much, so simply. I love the pink butterfly you, picked, too.
Thanks for sharing this in-the-moment lesson Liza taught you, and the lesson about ordinary days in the last post. Liza's life and death taught, and continues to teach me lessons in my own experience, and in reading about yours.
Liza has taught me to be thankful for each morning that I get to kiss my husband goodbye before work and each evening I get to come home to him. For each time I get to hear my Grandma's voice on the phone. For each memory I have yet to make with my Mom. She's taught me that life is fragile and precious and that I cannot take the life of my loved ones for granted. Any of us could be gone in a instant. Liza taught me that life is too short to not say I'm sorry and make relationships right while it is possible. Liza has motivated me to live meaningfully, knowing that my days are limited.
I have much to thank my precious little niece for someday. I am so glad Liza has been part of my life.
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