Today I was thinking back on the visitation at your funeral. It warmed my heart to hear your friends from the past, coworkers, the church family, friends of mine, coworkers of mom’s, or friends of the boys share their memories of you. Very often people would talk about your smile, your laugh, jokes you told, pranks you pulled, or encouraging words you shared. This is when I realized so many times we think about the big, huge impact we want to make on the world. I’m not saying we shouldn’t have a goal because we all should have a goal/dream. However, sometimes I think we need to focus on the small things, the small ways we can make an impact. Like you walking into Alma Products sharing your smile with your coworkers. Or you stopping to listen to a coworker’s or a church friend’s battle with cancer. Dad, you always encouraged them that they didn’t have to believe the side effects or believe that cancer was going to kick their butts. Instead you would tell them, “you got this!” A coworker of yours shared with me how just hearing your laugh from a few assembly lines over brightened her day. We all need to realize, Dad, that sometimes those small impacts outweigh the big, huge impacts. The small things are usually ways that all of us can impact our circle. It does take more muscles to frown than to smile, and I already shared about the belly laughs on Wednesday’s post. God did give us two ears and one mouth for a reason. Whether you call it the power of the pause or you call it holding space, we need to truly listen to what others have to say. Listen to what they are saying, process it, and then respond. We shouldn’t already have our response planned out before the person stops speaking. Okay Dad, maybe you and Mom still needed to work on this with each other; but you both were good at it with other people. I pray when it’s my time to go that my loved ones get to hear stories of the “small things” I did in life. Love and miss you Dad.
