Day Sixteen | 31 Days of Thanksgiving
[Laura Webber is today’s guest author. If you’ve not had the pleasure of meeting Laura in person, you are missing out on a phenomenal individual. She and Dave Webber, prior guest author, have been great friends to meand awesome human beings. I’m thankful to know such quality individuals]
I am thankful for hard lessons learned the easy way.
Several years ago, long before I ever locked eyes with my husband to be, I became close enough to a particular family to be able to glean several valuable life lessons. The most beneficial lesson that I walked away learning was how important it is to live inside each moment.
Truly living inside each moment is a lot easier said than experienced. Our culture leads us to believe that the best things or experiences in life are just beyond our reach. We live for the next vacation, a new car, a new house, the next promotion, the next set of friendships that will be made, or the next windfall to our finances… and once we’ve tasted these ‘joy-givers’ in our lives, we are sucked back into living for the next big moment, all while easily losing sight of all of the small, beautiful moments found in our day-to-day living.
As I watched this family, the couple seemed, almost unknowingly, to skim past the potential of extended across the room glances, potential of intimate conversations, and opportunity after opportunity to share in the details of their day during their time spent apart. Their children also seemed to miss out on opportunities for ‘teachable moments’ and reminders of how loved and valuable they are. By living outside the moment, the ordinary didn’t captivate and therefore, easily slipped away.
Over time, I began to realize that living counter-culturally wasn’t crazy or impossible for my own family. I’ve learned that it takes a lot of work, and me changing my own, often selfish, perspectives or agendas. But when I’ve consciously slowed myself down to enjoy the simple luxuries of being married, like simply holding hands with my husband or a long distance wink across the room, I definitely find more joy in my marriage . And when I choose to live my life counter-culturally, I am able to revel in the early years of motherhood, like when my three year old son gives me out-of-the-blue leg hugs and when I’m woken in the middle of the night by sweet nudges from the child growing inside of me.
[Here’s the link to all of the 31 Days of Thanksgiving posts.]
