The Moments That Matter

I watched my dad slowly fade from cancer. I watched his strength leave him, watched his body grow tired, and stayed with him until the very end. Nothing prepares you for that kind of goodbye. Nothing teaches you how to keep breathing when someone you love is slipping away right in front of you. Christmas just passed, and January 13 will mark one full year since he went to heaven. I am thankful he is no longer hurting and that his body is whole again, but that does not stop the ache. I miss him every single day. Parts of me feel missing, and the world feels dimmer than it used to. Still, I get up and I try, every single day. When I step onto my parents porch, I can still see him there, paint on his hands, then settling into his chair and saying, “Hey babydoll.” He built that house with his own hands. He took so much pride in it. I am grateful he got to enjoy some of it, even though he is not here now to sit on that porch, climb on his tractor, or enjoy the life he worked so hard to build. What I hold onto are the moments, the memories, and sometimes his robe, the one I curl up in when missing him feels unbearable.

The other day I was driving and saw a beautiful house sitting on rolling hills surrounded by open fields, and it stopped me in my tracks. It made me think about how much of our lives we spend chasing, building, and working ourselves tired. We work because we have to. We need to eat. We need to survive. But life is happening so fast. One day we will wake up and realize twenty years have already passed, and we will wonder where the time went. The days blur together and the clock never slows down. Your job title will be replaced. Your role will be filled by someone else. But you cannot be replaced. The way you love, the way you show up, the way you make people feel, those things are irreplaceable. None of the things we work ourselves to exhaustion for are what people cling to when we are gone. They cling to who we were.

This year, I hope we all slow down a little, notice the small things, and hold the people we love a little closer. Life moves fast, and sometimes we forget to pause and breathe, to really see the moments that are happening right in front of us. There is beauty in the ordinary if we take the time to look for it.

The moments, the memories, and the love we share are what stay with us long after the days blur together. Let this year be about presence, not perfection, about soaking in the people and the experiences that truly matter, because it is never too late to slow down and hold on a little tighter.