Monday Mantra: What Really Matters

A mantra is a sound, syllable, word, or group of words that is considered capable of "creating transformation".

Every Monday I will post a new thought, idea, or focus for the week. When you need a breather from life, when you need a little inspiration, or when you're about to jump over the conference table and strangle your co-worker, remember the mantra.

Monday Mantra: Remember what really matters

Lately, old memories have been resurfacing. Most of them are of my grandmother who, today, would have been 100 years old. Two years have come and gone, two birthdays, two Christmases, two of everything.

It's amazing how much someone can still hurt after two entire years.

Last week I was looking over old recipes she had written to me, just for me, and I lost it. Recipes, of all things. But they weren't just recipes. They were pieces of paper she once touched. They were her words with her funny little messages at the end of each of them. They're something that can never be  replaced. I hold them carefully, delicately, as if they're pieces of antique glass that could shatter at any moment.

I've lost a lot of people in my life but when I lost her, I officially became grandparent-less. That was really hard for me to handle because I love every single thing about grandparents. For me, anyway, when I had them I had everything I ever needed. I think of how my own children will one day be limited because I don't have a father for them to call grandpa and on some strange scale of Uncontrollable-Things-That-Make-You-Feel-Guilty, well, that one makes be feel terrible.

Last year I wrote a post called One Year Later, in honor of her memory and all the little things I would forever miss. I didn't actually write this to make all of you cry, believe it or not. I write this to tell you to remember what's important in life. It's not how many gifts you're buying or how clean your house is or how many hours you put in at the office. It's the people in your life that count. It's the moments you spent with them, it's the things you shared, said, did. Remember what really matters in life and make more of those moments happen now.

I Love You, Loved You, Always Will

Today I weep, I weep for you

I weep for things that won't come true, 

I weep for what was had, now lost

I weep because this is the cost.

I loved you then, I love you now

I'll love you until there's no sound,

I'll love you 'til the earth is still

I love you, loved you, always will.