Lessons learned

Dearest Mikkie,

I have learned a few things from this experience already. A couple of them are:

• Hug and kiss more often, those you love, a little more closely, a little more tightly, just a little more every day....
• Say "I love you" every second of every day. You can never hear it enough.
• Spend less time worrying about things that don't really matter. Focus on the things that do matter, a lot more often.
• Spend less time worrying about anything. As your great-grandmother, Lucille Harper, used to quote and has stuck with me since is, "For everything under the sun, there either is a solution or there is none. If there is one, hurry and find it. If there is none, nevermind it."
• Be a little more patient. With everything and everyone, including yourself.
• Don't wish time away. When it's gone, it's gone and you cannot get it back. Enjoy every single minute you have with your loved ones. I really like this quote, "Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things." ~Robert Brault
• Forgive and forget. Life is too short to hold grudges. Forgiveness is essential and crucial to our happiness.
• Anger is completely pointless. It does nothing but bring regret. I hope and pray that you wil forgive me for all the times I've acted so foolishly.
• If you make God's will your own, life will be a lot more bearable. I quickly found that out as I realized no matter how hard you pray, you cannot change God's will.
• The things you find burdensome and tiring become part of the things you miss the most. Finding your crayon marks and finger smudges on the walls and windows don't bother me the slightest, but I rather wish I could have more.
• Live and love life to the fullest. I'm going to try so much harder to not say "I'll do that later", because there may not be a later, or a tomorrow. I'm going to take advantage of each day and not let time slip from my hands.

I know this is probably a miniscule amount of what I'm supposed to learn, and there's probably even bigger lessons that I just can't see yet, but I know I'm not going to know and understand everything all at once. There are still some things that I'm praying for a better understanding on.

I love you Mikkie. Things pop up everyday that bring back the pain, like yesterday when Faith saw a helicopter while we were driving and said with great enthusiasm, "look a helicopter. Mikkie's back! Mikkie's back!" if only things worked that way. :)