She gazed into the eyes of my younger daughter from the vast wisdom of her 102 years and said, “Be careful with your life.”
This was a deeply sincere dictum from a great grandmother who was cognizant to whom she was speaking, in a tone of great seriousness. She had gotten our attention.
My grandmother keeps the topics light and conversational most of the time. She enjoys being sociable and likes to make others feel comfortable as she holds her end of a typically superficial discussion. It is not always obvious to us if she is entirely aware of what is going on but on this occasion, she was alert and to the point. She wanted my daughter to realize how precious she is, how finite life is and how she must set her path by her choices. My grandmother wanted to be sure she didn’t let life just carry her along without setting an intention of where she wanted to go.
It was as though she was expressing what she needed to say and to have this important thought stick in my daughter’s mind – perhaps to stay with my daughter long after Memère is no longer with us.
Each time we see Memère we realize it may well be the last time we see each other here on earth. We are often amazed by how much she is indeed still here with us. Each moment with her is a treasure for she will not be with us much longer, and she has outlived anyone’s expectations.
I must ask you now to reflect on if you are being “careful with YOUR life”. Each of us has the opportunity and the obligation to care of ourselves. We get to choose our life if we set our intention and follow our hearts – our truth. That’s not saying life will be easy when we set our own path because it may not be. But we will have lived in accordance with our own integrity and have taken care of this precious gift of our life.
