I'm reading The Last Lecture by Dr. Randy Pausch right now. He is a professor in Virginia with three young sons and a wife. He was diagnosed about a two years ago with Pancreatic cancer and given a few months to live. For his students he gave and video taped his "last lecture" which was all about life, end of life issues, having fun, living in the moment and lessons learned. He then went on to write a book called The Last Lecture which goes into these subjects more indepthly. When asked if he was excited about having the #1 Best Seller and selling millions of copes, he replied "well, I wrote it and only cared about the first 3 copies, so I'm happy." He has beaten all the odds and statistics and is still alive. He had congestive heart failure and kidney failure two months ago so his doctors say he is definitely on his final way out. I have no idea how long Dr. Pausch will live but I wish for as many minutes as possible for himself and his family. This whole subject has however, made me think about the lessons or lack thereof that I am leaving for the girls. This blog was intended to sub as a journal where I could document our lives, our history, our thoughts etc. I did it as a blog so family members and friends can see pix of the girls and find out what we've been up to.
But as I look at my Angelina or Ugly Betty post, I realize I might have gone a little bit south of the point. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's what I was thinking at the time. But, it's not what my blog was intended for. So I'm starting a new series of entries called For Katie and Jessica...which will contain thoughts and lessons I want to teach my girls in case I'm flattened by a bus next week. You just never know...and there is stuff I need THEM to know just in case. I pray that I will live a long life, that I'll see them grow and make great choices and turn into fabulous strong, spiritual, self confident women. I hope to see my grandchildren play, travel with Mike and die together in bed at age 93 after a hot bout of lovin'. But that never happens does it? We will all go through a very dark ravine at the end of each of our lives. I am thankful to Dr. Pausch for shining a very bright light on that ravine so that we all might navigate it a little bit better.
On that note, here's my first edition of For Katie and Jessica:
Hey Chicks. The world will tell you to be confident and self assured and strong. These are the characteristics that will help you go the farthest in life. All the while, they will parade Super Models, wrinkle cream and skinny jean ads in front of your face every second. So the real message they are sending is you need to confident, self assured and strong while wearing a size 5 and look fabulous at all times. Oh, you will need to wear Chanel as well. Good Luck! What I want to tell you is that they're right. If you want to go as far as possible in this world you need to have your act together and look awesome. If you do this you will go really far. And you'll probably feel great about yourself until you realize a couple of things. First, there will ALWAYS BE someone prettier and more together. So you'll never feel that great about yourself because you will always get beat by someone else. This might not happen right away in your life but eventually you'll get it that there's always somebody better. Smarter, faster, cuter. It's a hard lesson to learn and one that will be painful. Second, the world values these things but God cares way more about your heart and who you are inside. I guarantee you that God doesn't care if your purse is Chanel, Gucci or a backpack from Target. He doesn't care what your job is or how popular you are or what size your jeans are. He cares that you are kind. That you show and give love to others. He cares that you turn to Him in all things. Not just when you are sad and need comfort, but also when you get a promotion, fall in love or have a great hair day. Turn to God in everything, talk to Him every day and don't lose touch. If you can make that a habit and you talk to God everyday through your prayers, you will find that it won't hurt as much when the hard times come. Sure, you'll be sad. You'll hate that you lost out on a great job or that a boy liked another girl better than you. But I promise that if you can share your sadness with The Lord that it will ease the hurt just a little. I have no idea when you'll read this. But maybe it will be at a time in your life when you've gone a long while since talking to God. I know it's hard to get started and you might feel funny. But God isn't waiting there with His hands on His hips waiting to chew you out for staying away for so long. He is waiting with open arms and NOTHING would make Him happier for you to tell him you want to try and talk to him but you feel funny. That's how you start or restart. It'll make you feel better. Trust me, I'm your mom...I know what I'm talking about. (and if you believe that I must have died really early in your life because if you get to hang out with me for any decent amount of time you will discover that I don't know anything that I often talk about)
But as I look at my Angelina or Ugly Betty post, I realize I might have gone a little bit south of the point. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's what I was thinking at the time. But, it's not what my blog was intended for. So I'm starting a new series of entries called For Katie and Jessica...which will contain thoughts and lessons I want to teach my girls in case I'm flattened by a bus next week. You just never know...and there is stuff I need THEM to know just in case. I pray that I will live a long life, that I'll see them grow and make great choices and turn into fabulous strong, spiritual, self confident women. I hope to see my grandchildren play, travel with Mike and die together in bed at age 93 after a hot bout of lovin'. But that never happens does it? We will all go through a very dark ravine at the end of each of our lives. I am thankful to Dr. Pausch for shining a very bright light on that ravine so that we all might navigate it a little bit better.
On that note, here's my first edition of For Katie and Jessica:
Hey Chicks. The world will tell you to be confident and self assured and strong. These are the characteristics that will help you go the farthest in life. All the while, they will parade Super Models, wrinkle cream and skinny jean ads in front of your face every second. So the real message they are sending is you need to confident, self assured and strong while wearing a size 5 and look fabulous at all times. Oh, you will need to wear Chanel as well. Good Luck! What I want to tell you is that they're right. If you want to go as far as possible in this world you need to have your act together and look awesome. If you do this you will go really far. And you'll probably feel great about yourself until you realize a couple of things. First, there will ALWAYS BE someone prettier and more together. So you'll never feel that great about yourself because you will always get beat by someone else. This might not happen right away in your life but eventually you'll get it that there's always somebody better. Smarter, faster, cuter. It's a hard lesson to learn and one that will be painful. Second, the world values these things but God cares way more about your heart and who you are inside. I guarantee you that God doesn't care if your purse is Chanel, Gucci or a backpack from Target. He doesn't care what your job is or how popular you are or what size your jeans are. He cares that you are kind. That you show and give love to others. He cares that you turn to Him in all things. Not just when you are sad and need comfort, but also when you get a promotion, fall in love or have a great hair day. Turn to God in everything, talk to Him every day and don't lose touch. If you can make that a habit and you talk to God everyday through your prayers, you will find that it won't hurt as much when the hard times come. Sure, you'll be sad. You'll hate that you lost out on a great job or that a boy liked another girl better than you. But I promise that if you can share your sadness with The Lord that it will ease the hurt just a little. I have no idea when you'll read this. But maybe it will be at a time in your life when you've gone a long while since talking to God. I know it's hard to get started and you might feel funny. But God isn't waiting there with His hands on His hips waiting to chew you out for staying away for so long. He is waiting with open arms and NOTHING would make Him happier for you to tell him you want to try and talk to him but you feel funny. That's how you start or restart. It'll make you feel better. Trust me, I'm your mom...I know what I'm talking about. (and if you believe that I must have died really early in your life because if you get to hang out with me for any decent amount of time you will discover that I don't know anything that I often talk about)
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