Reminders to Live

 

This was written originally back in 2009 – but I’m sharing it again in honor of October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Reminders to Live

By Liesl Garner, Written specifically for Fresno County Women’s Chamber of Commerce Guest Speaker, Armen Bacon, writer of the Radio Series called “Live, Laugh & Love” on KJewel in Fresno, CA. I am honored to be able to start each month’s meeting with a poem, and end each meeting with a soft word.
I love the reminders we get
To live simply
To laugh with a full heart
To love with wide open arms.
I have signs telling me to slow down,
to live, laugh and love
emblazoned upon my walls.
My children are constant reminders
of life that is lived fully
while swinging wildly from atop
Monkey Bars and singing
the neighborhood awake.
And yet, there are still those days
when my bad hair is all that
preoccupies my mind. I stand in line
at the bank thinking mean thoughts
at the woman ahead of me with perfectly
– I mean Per-Fect-Ly beautiful hair.
I make all these excuses to myself
about how busy I am being a mom
and running a business, being involved
in my community. The list goes on and
on and yet, I still begrudge her the
amazing amounts of free time she must
have to make her hair so gorgeous.
I even make a snide comment to someone
else in line, and catch myself, and
realize how horrible I am. I decide to be
really big, and just give the woman
a flat-out compliment when I notice her
walking right in front of me in the parking lot.
I mention her divine hair – and she turns
to me and says, “It’s not my hair. I have
Cancer. This is a wig.” And I don’t have words
to express my sorrow at begrudging her
any amount of time to primp and feel beautiful.
My hair is not perfect, I do not have copious
amounts of free time for glamour. I have Time.
I have the time I have right now with my husband,
my children and my friends. And I could not
be more grateful to have the ability to live
and laugh and love without counting grains
of sand in an hourglass, the moments remaining.
I am grateful for the reminders we get
To live fully the life we’ve been given.
GREAT END
Thank you Women’s Chamber – Thank you Armen Bacon – let’s all say it together now “Live, Laugh and Love!”
Photo Credit: I took this picture of the rose my husband picked for me from our garden in Fresno.

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