Celebrating a Life

Today ‘s blog is not about paper goods or weddings or any of the normal things you’d see us chat about. Today’s blog is about the celebration of life. A special life of our number one blog reader, a father, friend and a good man. When I sit back and look at his life and the way the world is today, I cannot help but acknowledge some of the many things he has made me realize - and in turn - want to share on the blog he loved to read.

For forty years, he kept a journal every day - of things that happened that day - and in turn, made every day a celebration of routine, normal happenings. It’s easy to become so caught up in the major events in our life and forget that every day is special and should be celebrated and given value. It's easy to forget that family is the top priority in life and that your job/business comes after that.

Even as he knew this part of the journey was coming to an end, he was self-less in not wanting to be a bother or be demanding to take priority in the lives of his family and those caring for him. I think sometimes that’s one of the most looked over things a person does, yet it speaks volumes about their character.

He believed that ‘credit’ was what you gave people for doing a good job, not what you get so you can try to impress people when you really can’t afford to. Imagine what the world economies would look like if that was practiced by only a fraction of the population.

He never once used Facebook or Twitter - he would rather pick up the phone and have a conversation. Faithfully, he would read our blog and when we’d talk, he’d ask me about things he had seen, things we were involved in. One day, he gave me a book about wedding planning that his wife had gotten 57 years ago when she was planning their wedding. It said you could plan on spending $4000 for an well-appointed wedding. He wasn’t really sure about how much they had really spent, he just knew that he had spent 57 years in love making a good life with her and their children and their families. It’s that reminder that while a wonderful wedding day is great, it’s not what makes a marriage last successfully.

He’ll be missed, in so many ways, so many times of the day, but his legacy of life and love will continue for generations because others want to be like him. We all should take note of a life like this and strive to be more like that - celebrating each day for whatever it brings, having a clear priority that family is first and everything else will fall into place, being unselfish and showing love and respect to everyone you meet. That, in turn, would make the world just FINE.

Thank you, Bill.

We'd like to say a special thank you to those of you who have been so amazingly supportive and kind during these past couple of weeks when things have been so tough. We've felt your genuine caring and will pass that forward to others, just as you gave it to us. The studio will be closed for a time this week to be with loved ones during this time and then we'll back to normal as soon as possible.