Several months before the love of my life, my beautiful bride, passed, I began to write love letters. The normal CaringBridge approach of talking about the disease, her cancer, just didn’t seem right to me. After Maureen’s passing, I continued to write, because our love did not end on the day of her passing. She may not be present physically, but her love is fully present. We are still connected. Those love letters can be found at The Love of My Life.
Over the last several months, I have been privileged to share words of love that come from the hearts of our three children, Taylor (18), Kyla (15) and Katelyn (13). As we “celebrated” what would have been Maureen’s 53rd birthday yesterday, Taylor, our eldest, was in the air. Flying Etihad Airways. To Thailand for a Global Village Build with Habitat for Humanity in Udon Thani. Today, I share his words. His voice. His love. I love you son. Mommy loves you. God’s speed…
Day One | 27 April 2017
Day one. Today was all about emotion. Excitement. Worry. Sadness. Anger. Happiness. A sense of belonging. Emotions that did not happen in one particular order, but that occurred intermittently throughout the day. Occurrences that affected my mood. That affected how I saw and moved though the world at that particular moment. I realized just how beautiful and wonderful emotions are. But also how destructive, distracting, and debilitating they can be if you allow the negative ones to consume you.
Sitting here on the plane from Dallas to Abu Dhabi has allowed me to think a lot. I’ve thought about what I think the future might hold. About the past twelve years at a school that I’ve been so lucky to call home. About how my life has transformed from being what most would consider to be a typical high school boy into a leader, an inspiration to some, and example for many more. But while thinking about all of those things, I realized that its not just about not letting the negative emotions consume you. Its about not letting your accolades, your accomplishments, or awards consume you either. In the grand scheme of things, all of that is insubstantial. Instead, continue to move through life with your head down but with your heart up. Put one foot in front of the other. Breathe one breath at a time. Live life humbly.
We are all born individuals, humans, people. We are all intrinsically different. We are all unique. We all have different gifts, different passions, and different talents that we call our own. I believe life is about discovering those talents and using them to please God. We do not need to put others down to build ourselves up. We need to learn how to love each other. We need to learn to love ourselves. As 1st Corinthians 13:13 states, “And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.” I love my mom. I love my sisters. I love my dad. I love every single person I have had to privilege to cross paths with. Love someone. Love everyone. Love something. Love everything. It does not matter how big or how small that thing is. All that matters is that if you do it because because of love, then it always enough. So let us live. And let us love.
