Embrace the Day! 

by Shauna Brown 

     Recently I gave a talk about living more purposefully. I found several quotes that seemed similar in thought: people with the desire to live life to it’s fullest.  Their thoughts make me smile,  as I find myself wanting to accelerate my enthusiasm for life as well.   

        “I want a life that sizzles and pops and makes me laugh out loud. And I don’t want to get to the end, or to tomorrow, even, and realize that my life is a collection of meetings and pop cans and errands and receipts and dirty dishes. I want to eat cold tangerines and sing out loud in the car with the windows open and wear pink shoes and stay up all night laughing and paint my walls the exact color of the sky right now. I want to sleep hard on clean white sheets and throw parties and eat ripe to- matoes and read books so good they make me jump up and down, and I want my everyday to make God belly laugh, glad that he gave life to someone who loves the gift.” 

        Shauna Niequist, Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life 

        “I don’t want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coifed, and with long, perfectly manicured finger-nails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone’s garden.I want to be there with children’s sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived.” 

          Marjorie Pay Hinckley 

    Just yesterday, in conversation with my children I found myself wanting to embrace those similar shared feelings. When one gets to this point in life - a little over the top and then some-- life looks a little more fragile and uncertain. When good friends have passed to the other side, perspective takes on a whole new focus. 

     So let me just share a few of my heart felt feelings. Top of the my list:I would breathe deeper each morning, take longer walks and blow more kisses to God. I would share my mistakes more openly. I would laugh until the tears roll down my cheeks making them sticky.  I would dance in the puddled rain more often. I would allow those peanut butter kisses to remain longer on my face. I would treasure little fingerprints and smudges.  I would reach out and smile to more strangers.  I would hug my children and grandchillies longer and longer.  I would sample more perfumes.  I would learn Spanish so I could understand everyone around me. I would drive faster.  I would place a fresh bouquet of flowers on my desk at least once a month.  I would sing to the top of my lungs and beat on the steering wheel as I drive.  I’d be sillier.  I would visit more cemeteries. I would plant a new and different flower every spring. I would read more. I would make a brand new friend everyday. I would paint my fingernails blood red (for one day). I would seek to hold close the good friends I have. I would forgive myself quicker. I would take more chances and try harder things.  I would watch more sunsets. I would tickle and squeeze my grandchillies till their faces turn red. I would stay up late until I accomplished making someone a touch happier. I would wash my clothes in Tide, and write a thought for each day.  

          Funny, I just realized to be fully content and happy, I must change the “I would” into present tense:  “I will.” Imagine what the ‘presence tense’ can bring to life.  

    “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.”  

                                        Eleanor Roosevelt 

     So for today, take a moment and reflect upon those things you wish to embrace as well. Some might call it “wishful thinking.” But at some point along the journey of life, each of us will sit back, reflect, and ponder how we experienced this earthly privilege.

    Hopefully, the: “I wish I had, I should have,why didn't I, would have’s,”  won’t generate any trama.  We will realize that here and now - the present  moments can make all the difference.     

    I believe, just as Marjorie Hinckley expressed driving up to the pearly gates...

    I want to meet my maker having accomplished all that I was sent here to do. That has been a lifelong worry and concern of mine. I wish God would define it more clearly.  I guess some prayers just don’t get direct answers.  So, whether it’s writing a book, scripting music, loving my children, mending a heart, being a good friend, being the best of sweethearts, bring joy to someone, and to God.... I want to do it right. You see I don't want to ever become another parable of an ungrateful servant. I want to return home with arms eager and open, because I know His are.   

I know that each of us are encircled in the arms of God’s love and tender care. 

      I can bear solid testimony that He lives, that He gives, and gives freely. All one has to do is go for a short walk, listen to the birds sing, watch the bumble bee, breathe in the fresh fragrance of flowers, watch the drifting clouds, smell the rain, and realize that all things, testify of our supreme creator. 

      I like how Hans Urs von Balthasar phrased it:   

        “What you are is God’s gift to you, what you become is your gift to God.” 

   Might we all seek to share our gifts freely, untying the ribbons daily for others as well as ourselves to enjoy. 

   Embrace the Day!  

     Love to all Shauna