Every, Every Minute

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Are you really living? Am I? And what defines whether or not we are living fulfilled lives? Is it the life we have? Or the life we wish we had?

Terminal illness is stalking one of my closest friends and relatives. She and I have always been blessed with the kind of intimacy, respect, and support that is rare in most of our lives. She has taught me to relish life--every, every minute of it. Since the days of “hide and go seek,” she has taught me--whether she was enjoying the snort of her horses, the training of her dogs, or the expansion of her spirituality, she has taught that enjoying life  is a choice. She teaches me that still; she teaches that, especially, as the sun is setting on her earthly days. She is choosing, as well as she can, to live out her days in some measure of gratitude, of the joy of a tree, a song, a squirrel out the window, a phone call, the light of life all around.

None of us has all in life we wish we had. But each of us has a life. And a choice.

The author of Colossians said of Jesus Christ “…you have come to fullness in Him…” (Col. 2:10). But that beautiful letter goes on to encourage Christian people to choose life in Christ, to “…seek the things…where Christ is…” (Col. 3:1), to choose to love, rejoice, and give thanks.

The choice to live life, in all the fullness of God’s love, indeed the choice to live every, every minute (as Thornton Wilder suggests in his play Our Town) is available to each of us. Even those of us who may have only this day to breathe, to love, to rejoice, and give thanks.