I have a long love of the printed word, specifically newsprint. You can read more about that here. But we don’t get the newspaper at our house. It’s a generational thing, I guess because you’d better believe when either my folks or my in-laws are in town there are newspapers here; they make sure of it. But you won’t see them laying around our breakfast table on a regular basis.
Until recently, I never felt like I was missing out. I guess I don’t really care to read all the negative, sad and otherwise unhappy news that’s out there, I’m enough of a worrier about my own stuff. My husband, on the other hand, likes to stay on top of the happenings , he just does it on his phone with newsfeeds from national sources instead. So you see, we don’t need a newspaper.
Until we found ourselves moving. Then we had to have newspaper – lots of it. It may be full of stories I don’t care to read, but it sure is good for wrapping dishes and nick-knacks. So I called up my parents and had them save their newspaper for several weeks and they graciously did.
Moving was generally an overwhelming and reflective process for me. Packing up the contents of our first home was tough. It was the place I brought both babies home from the hospital, where we made memories as couple and then as a family and the place we updated and remodeled, lovingly turning it from a house into a “home.”
So for weeks a couple hours at a time I pulled out the box of newspapers and wrapped up all those memories. And as I did, I opened week after week of the headlines, ad inserts and the obituaries.
The obituaries – that’s what I was missing from the newspaper. I couldn’t help but read the stories of people who have passed from this life. Pictures and words shouting at me that life is short.
And I realized that since I don’t get a newspaper, I’m not seeing the obits and being reminded of the mortality of our humanness. And I need to be. I need to see that happily-ever after doesn’t happen for everyone. I need to count my blessings, live in the present moment and tell those I care about, how much I love them – every day. I need to be reminded that life is short.
How do you remember that life is short?