What is Really Important

Tonight I took my three youngest children and our little dog Lucky to a local nature area for a walk. It was a beautiful day-- cool, clear sky, and we stopped and bought some ice cream on the way home.

Back home, however, the slowcooker was still soaking in the sink from dinner, as was the rice cooker and a few other odds and ends. At first I was going to leave them until tomorrow but I thought of what an ugly sight they would be in the morning.... and then I remembered Linda.

Linda was my sister-in-law, my brother's wife and one of my best friends. She passed away five years ago from breast cancer leaving my brother and two small children. She had fought back the cancer since the birth of her youngest child with varying degrees of success. For a while she was completely bedridden, the cancer was so agressively attacking the bones in her leg. Then she had some surgery and radiation and she was enabled to walk again!!! It was so wonderful to see her on her feet again. I called her in those first few weeks of regaining her mobility and asked what she was doing. She said, "I'm wiping my kitchen counter so it will be clean for my family and it's filling me with such joy that I have tears in my eyes."

Yeah... I washed the slowcooker and the ricemaker, put them away, and shined the sink. I made it look nice for my family...... And may I never forget what a privelege it is to be able to do so.