Sharing Life

You can have a ton of money, be top in your professional field and receive accolades from others. You can circle the globe and see the Seven Wonders of the World, and more, but if you can’t share your of life with others, it all seems hollow and empty.

This past month my wife and I have had the privilege to have our eldest daughter, Becky, and our first grandchild, Molly, share the experience of living in India. From the wonderful colors of the bazaar to the taste of achari paneer; from the elephant ride up to Nahargarh Fort in Rajahstan to auto rickshaws in the congested city of Delhi we have experienced a slice of life together. In between our work and daily chores we schedule one more trip to a museum or a Hindi movie while suffering through the 105 degree heat. At the end of day, exhausted, I wonder if it’s worth it and even a bit guilty that I am not doing more work, you know, the really important things of life? I catch myself in mid-thought, reminding myself that the work will always be there but the chance to share this part of my life with my children and grandchildren is a one-time deal.


Becky (and our youngest daughter, Sara who is scheduled to visit us in August), were blessed/cursed to be born to nomadic parents. Unlike many families in the world, where people settle in and around the extended family, in the nearly thirty-nine years of marriage Sandy and I have never lived near our parents, siblings, and now, children. What is interesting about our roving life is that we are one of the closest families in our kinship clan. Though we are seldom together in one place, when we are it’s like we have never been apart and we pick up where we left off the last time we saw each other.

Sharing life with my wife and daughters is special, but God has allowed me to live long enough to share life experiences with my grandchildren. I regret that my grandson, Collin, couldn’t make this trip, but blessed that Molly could take time away from school to make this trek to India. When Doc and Grammy are no longer anymore she perhaps will recount her adventure to her grandchildren. Perhaps the memory of our existence on this earth will go beyond two generations. I wonder which of our grandchildren will follow the nomadic lifestyle of their grandparents?

As we all know, life is but a shadow. With all thy getting, get some time, share some time with others. Blessed is the man or woman who can live well and can slice off part of that life with others to experience.