Life

Today as I contemplate life I go on somewhat of a journey.
So...welcome aboard...
A journey through Hollie's head, now that's excitement!!! :)

Yesterday was the Forth of July, as all of you know, because of last weeks blog, it was Tiffany's birthday. But this year for Tiffany's birthday she gave me a present. She found out Sunday that she is pregnant...YEAH!!!
Jessica's little 'Olivia'; that is her name right now...will be here in August and then about 7 months later we will have another little grand baby. I am so excited.
Our babies having babies...and life goes on.
So I pose the question...if you had a choice would you want to know when your time was running out? Would you change the way you spend your days?
That brings me to an experience I want to share today...
It happened almost four years ago.
I was at the Temple. On the way in when I was at the front desk one of the gentlemen saw my name on my temple recommend. He said, "Belt, are you any relation to Dwayne Belt?" I told him that I was and he asked me how Glenys was doing, because he had heard that Dwayne died. Dwayne, of course, had not died and I told the man that he was alive and well and just as spunky as ever.
About 3 weeks later Dwayne and Glenys came over on a Sunday afternoon. We laughed and visited for about an hour. I told Dwayne about the man in the temple. As I was relating the experience something intangible happened. I knew that Dwayne was going to die. When they got up to leave I was going to give Dwayne my 'half hug'; that he always seemed to prefer, when he grabbed me and hugged me tight, as if to say good-bye, a real good-bye. That is the last time I saw Dwayne conscious.
I never mentioned the experience to anyone until long after Dwayne was gone.
I believe it was a special gift from Heavenly Father. An opportunity to say goodbye. I often felt like Dwayne thought I wasn't good enough for Terry and I sometimes felt that he liked to remind me of that. During that very moment I knew that he approved of me. What a wonderful gift.
When the family had a meeting about when to terminate life support I voted that it should be done soon because I knew he was ready to go.
I can't even begin to imagine what Glenys and the kids were going through so I kept my distance and allowed them to have him to themselves.
I went down to see him one Sunday afternoon during Sunday school because I thought I would have him to myself for just 10 or 15 minutes to say a private goodbye, and to thank him for raising such a wonderful son. When I got there Glenys and Tyler; the oldest grandson, were there. I felt bad now because I had barged in on their time...but I decided to go ahead and do what I had gone to the hospital to do...say goodbye and thank you. I took Dwayne by the hand and looked into his face. I bore my testimony to him and promised him I would take care of his precious son, I told him that I loved him, thanked him for Terry, kissed him on the cheek and said goodbye.
I had closure.
So, again, the question...what would you do if you knew?
I went to see Debbie a couple of weeks ago. The experience with Dwayne kept coming into my mind...What if this were the last time I got to visit with Debbie in this life, what would we talk about? And then yesterday Suzie called me...and I thought, What if this were the last conversation I would ever have with Suzie in this life, what would we talk about?
Do we waste our words? Do we save our 'I love you' for another day? Do we spend our days doing things that are trivial?
Or do we live our life as if this may be our last day?
My challenge this week is to live a more fulfilling life! Say I love you. Embrace the people you love! Look into their eyes and 'observe' what is there. Really pay attention to what they are saying and also to what they are NOT saying.
Be Happy.
I love you all!