Every week doesn’t include a baby shower and a funeral service. Last Saturday I attended a baby shower for a young woman I’ve known since birth. Monday I attended the funeral of a gentleman I had the privilege of working for more than a decade ago. Both events were celebrations of life.
There were two newborns and one almost-born baby at the shower. Their presence filled the party with hope for the future. How can you not feel hopeful when you’re around a baby? They’re filled with potential.
The best funerals are reminders that a life well-lived empowers the future. When we live with intention—by loving our spouses, our children and grandchildren, working with integrity and doing our part as members of a community—our passing becomes more than a time for sorrow. It’s a passing of the mantle, so to speak.
We’re all going to die sooner or later, as Pastor David Petty quipped; it’s a 100 percent guarantee. In short, none of us are getting out of this thing alive. When it’s our turn to go, will we leave a past, or will we leave a future? People who leave a past leave regret and remorse and loss. Others leave a future because they inspire, encourage and motivate others to take up their torch, whether that torch is a commitment to philanthropy and volunteerism, a charge for individualism, or a legacy of integrity and honor.
Here’s the kicker: it’s up to us what we leave behind.
“The moment your past becomes bigger than your future, you die,” says motivational speaker Dan Sullivan. I don’t think he means literal death, but a subjective death. When the past is all we have, we’ve stopped living. Sullivan asks his audience how they can make their future bigger than their past. Many of us dwell on the past—rejoicing over past successes, suffering over past defeats, boxing ourselves in to past decisions. We need to live in the present, with an eye toward the future. What will we leave behind?
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We printed our Rangely stories in green ink for the last two weeks in an attempt to let folks who haven’t read a paper recently know that we are, in fact, covering Rangely news. This week we’re back in black for Meeker, Rangely and county stories.
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We’re planning to co-host a candidate forum with Meeker High School students in October for the two contested races on the November ballot: clerk and recorder and county commissioner. What questions would you like to ask the candidates? Please email questions to [email protected] or leave a comment on our Facebook page.
By Niki Turner | [email protected]
