While we are guests here

We spend so much of our lives learning.

As children, we are curious about everything, we ask questions, make mistakes, try again, discover consequences, learn to apologize, learn to take responsibility, learn to love, and slowly begin to understand who we are.

And then we become adults and somehow, we get so busy that we forget what a remarkable thing it is that we are here at all. We take it all for granted. In many ways, we forget all that we learned.

I have been thinking about this more as I get older.

What is our purpose here? What are we supposed to end up with? What are we supposed to leave behind? What have we missed? And why does it take so long for us to figure out the things that might have helped us do life differently? Not better, well… maybe better… but mostly differently.

We are all guests here. None of us knows exactly how long our invitation lasts. We make plans as though we are guaranteed another tomorrow, another year, another decade.

But we aren't.

And if we are guests, perhaps our responsibility isn't to be the most successful, the richest, the smartest, the most beautiful, or the most accomplished guest in the room. Maybe it is simply to make the most of the time we have been given...

To tell the truth, but also to appreciate the meaning of honesty.

To love deeply, but also to deeply appreciate love and what it means to be loved.

To be kind, but also to recognize and appreciate when kindness is extended.

To take responsibility when we are wrong.

To own our behavior and our choices.

To learn from our mistakes instead of defending them.

To appreciate what we have instead of constantly comparing it to what someone else has.

To discover our own gifts and understand that they are enough, that we are enough.

To meet people where they are instead of judging them for not being where we think they should be.

And perhaps most importantly, to teach those who come after us what we have learned. Because eventually, our time as guests will end.

I don't want to leave behind possessions nearly as much as I want to leave behind lessons.

I want my children, my grandchildren, and someday my great-grandchildren to know that hard work matters. That honesty matters. That kindness matters. That compassion matters. That joy matters.

I want them to know they don't have to compete with everyone around them to prove their worth.

I want them to understand that life isn't about getting everything right. It is about being willing to learn, to grow, to apologize, to try again, and to do a little better today because of what we learned yesterday. I want to leave them the tools to do life a little better than I did.

Maybe that is the beautiful responsibility of being a guest...

We arrive curious.

We learn.

We make mistakes.

We love.

We grow.

And then, one day, we leave.

I don't know exactly what my final words will be when my invitation is over, but I am pretty sure they will be, "thank you."

Thank you for letting me be here.

Thank you for the lessons.

Thank you for the love.

Thank you for the people who held my hand along the way.

And thank you for giving me enough time to learn how to be a good guest.

While we are guests here, I hope we learn to recognize the value of this life we have been gifted. And I hope that when it is time to leave, we can take with us the knowing that we did the best we could, and that it was enough.

And perhaps the greatest gift we can leave behind is not what we owned, but what we taught those we love, the tools to do life just a little differently, perhaps even a little better than we did.

Maybe that is our purpose while we are guests here… to learn enough to teach others.

xo

Gabby