All We Need

Yesterday I heard the story of a woman who is my age and fighting a degenerative disease that over the last five years has whittled away at her so much that all she can physically do is blink. As I read the heartfelt words written by her daughter I could feel the family’s pain and frustration. This woman’s daughter shared that when she brings her small children to visit her mother, her mother weeps with what this daughter can only hope is joy. Her eyes are all she has left to communicate and be in relationship with her family.

I have been consumed with thoughts of this woman and her family ever since…

It is so easy each day to take for granted what we have and only focus on what we want, relationships, things, jobs, homes, cars so many things that sometimes are just not all we want them to be. This story hit me in my “not enough” gut.

Nothing, not one THING, replaces our relationships. The people we are or are becoming are in part due to each relationship that touches our lives. The joys, hurts and random seemingly inconsequential interactions of our lives form who we become. How lucky we are that today we can tell someone we love them or hold a hand or kiss or hug, even share a kind word or smile and be in relationship with others…it truly is all we need.